The Little Things
by Miss Starfire
Summary: Pepper has a difficult time dealing with a personal situation, and she turns to Tony for help. Caught between what she has and what she wants, she ends up dragging Tony into the mess that is her head. A Christmas/Kwanza/Hanukah/Etc… gift for my Faithful Readers.
1. The Roof

**A/N:** Not your typical Christmas Story, but I hope it's a good present for all of you, nonetheless. Not many chapters. All already written, just gonna slowly release them throughout the next few days… depends on how much interest I see for it! ;)

**Summary:** Pepper has a difficult time dealing with a personal situation, and she turns to Tony for help. Caught between what she has and what she wants, she ends up dragging Tony into the mess that is her head. A Christmas/ Kwanza/ Hanukah/ Etc… gift for my Faithful Readers.

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><p><span><strong>The Little Things<strong>

**Chapter 1: The Roof**

He found her where he had met her, sitting almost exactly as he had seen her the first time ever: feet dangling from the edge of the water tower located high above the ground on the roof of the academy, sans meal in hand. Her gaze showed she was lost in her thoughts, her shoulders were sagged, and the look on her face was one of sheer hopelessness. He had seen her like this only a handful of times in the nearly two years he had known her, and each time it had been a cause for grave concern for him. She did tend to exaggerate the severity of simple situations and words, but when something truly rocked her entire world, she became an open book – fairly easy to decode.

She briefly acknowledged his presence by gracing him with an almost imperceptible smile as she tried to hide the fact that she had been crying by discretely wiping away her tears, but her red eyes and nose had betrayed her charade the instant he had laid eyes on her upon his arrival. She could probably blame the weather – bitter cold and unyielding – for her wrecked state, but the moment he climbed the structure to sit next to her and he rested his left hand on top of her right, glove-covered one, she knew nothing but the truth was going to be enough for him.

"Did she get any better?" He patiently waited for a response.

She shook her head curtly from side to side and the inevitable tears appeared almost instantly. Her lips quivered behind her left palm covering the lower half of her face, and when she closed her eyes, tears cascaded down her cheeks. The genius's heart broke along with hers, and not only because he personally identified with what she was going through, but also because he hated to see his redhead cry.

_His redhead_, the way in which he had for quite some time been referring to his friend, if just in his mind, ever since he had felt that first twinge of jealousy when he had seen her and Happy walk down the halls of the Tomorrow Academy, arms linked and sometimes even hand-in-hand. His redhead – what he hoped he could call her aloud one day if he found the courage to tell her how he felt for her now that she and the jock were no longer dating.

"I'm so sorry, Pep." He told her with utmost honesty while he linked the fingers on his left hand with her right ones. He clutched her hand tenderly and briefly, earning him an appreciative squeeze in return. His eyes then trekked from their laced hands to her distant stare, almost at a loss of what to do next. Thankfully for him, she took the lead on getting what she currently needed from the inventor, and he was more than ready to provide.

"I leave this Friday," she whispered after she added to their handhold the resting of her head on his left shoulder. She would have been happy with just that or even with a simple quick hug from him, but she was pleasantly surprised and felt even more emotionally supported by Tony when he adjusted his sitting position so that she could rest her face on his chest, and his arms went around her body to pull her closer to his and away from the bitter cold of December. And as if that had not been enough, he ventured the opportunity to press his unexpectedly warm lips on her forehead not once, but _twice_.

"Is your dad going with you?"

"Yeah," she replied and closed her eyes once more, the welcoming heat of his body slowly transferring to hers. "But he doesn't leave until Wednesday. Can't leave work any sooner than that."

"Why not?"

"Because she's not… she… she-she's still alive… for now."

Her broken, pain-filled words reminded him of a time when he had been informed of something similar about his own mother. They were words he had not wanted to hear, let alone utter himself, but at the end of the day the doctors' prophetic words had come true. Maria Stark had died of cancer – on a disgustingly beautiful summer Friday night, after countless months of battling her inevitable fate.

Now, here he was, years later, reliving the agony of losing a loved one, also a parent at that, through the eyes of one of his two best friends. And just as before, there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop the relentless train of destiny; nothing to force the woman in question to be released from the grip of death. Not even for her – for his redhead – and he agonizingly wished he could, if just for a day.

The silence that followed her answer was not interrupted for a long while as words could not truly convey her pain and thoughts, and his could not ease the grim situation she was experiencing. They both knew they had at least an hour to sit there, alone during their off period, with no one to disturb their moment together, and based on their reluctance to move from where they presently were, it appeared as if it was A-OK with both of them.

Last year, around the same time, the ginger had been dragging Tony around the school to force him to participate in the campus-wide Christmas Scavenger Hunt game that the student council had organized. Even though they had not won, Tony had to concede that spending all day with Pepper, stealing candy canes from classmates, deceiving teachers into giving up the location of the hidden items of the search, and hearing and seeing her enjoyment of it all when yet another treasure was found, _had_ been the highlight of the entire endeavor for him.

This time, however, she had hardly been able to concentrate in school – or at least for the last few weeks – following the announcement that her mother had _suddenly_ fallen ill. He was still not sure what the woman suffered from, but it had been serious enough for the redhead to lose sleep over it and even almost fail all of the end-of-semester tests. That was when he had truly grasped the seriousness of the situation: when Pepper had indicated that she did not care if she did not complete the science project or even school – when she stopped caring about her grades.

There were only three more days left of school before the winter break started, and Tony had the slight suspicion that this year, spending Christmas and New Year with Pepper was not going to be in the cards. Last Christmas, he had had the time of his life, even if his father had not been around like he was now, and even if his family's company had been out of reach for him. Pepper had that effect on him, of making him see the silver lining in the worst case scenario, and he felt ashamed that he was not able to do the same for her in her current time of need.

Then again, what was he supposed to say other than the speculative expression of 'Maybe she'll get better' or the almost-insulting resignation phrase of 'At least she'll be in a better place now?' Neither socially-acceptable idiom was good enough for her and by default, neither was good enough for him either. Dealing with death and the grief that followed was something he was familiar with, but even a social convention inept such as he knew that everyone's pain was different. Everyone's coping mechanism with the passing of a loved one was unique. No one felt the same amount of ache and no one mourned similarly.

His strong yet gentle arms around her made her feel as if she was encapsulated in a protective bubble of combined soft cotton and hard steel, and if his strong hold on her could have been converted into any other form of energy, the redhead knew that nothing and no one would ever bring her harm if he had any say in the matter. It was always this way when she stole hugs from him, whether he reciprocated them or he did not. She still remembered the first time she had hugged him, purely out of joy that he was alive and well after the Maggia had kidnapped her, Gene and the genius. This had been before she had confirmed that Tony was Iron Man, and when her arms had surrounded his waist and her face had been pressed against his chest, he had just stood there, shocked by the fact that this girl he had just met was embracing him. He _had_ thrown an arm around her shoulders eventually, and that had been the beginning of the unspoken yet mutually agreed upon physical aspect of their friendship.

And at this moment, right about now as he rocked her and rested his chin on the top of her head and he closed his eyes to inhale the scent of her shampoo coming from her hair, an innocent bystander could have safely assumed by their current postures that the redhead and the inventor were something more than simple friends; perhaps even romantically involved, somehow. And yet, they were not.

"I love you," the inventor stated out of nowhere and the redhead's body stiffened, her eyes opened wide.

"What?" She did not dare to move an inch, let alone face him.

"I love you," he repeated, slightly pulled away from her while still keeping his arms around her and stared directly into her eyes. "Tell her that, when she can still hear you and understand you. I didn't, and I regret it every day."

Her wide eyes shifted from left to right, reading as much as they could into his electric blue ones. She repeated his words in her mind several times until she was able to understand them, and she almost smacked her face with her hand when she realized what she thought she had heard was not what he had actually implied.

"How come you didn't tell her?" She asked once her heart stopped racing and she used the back of her hands to dry the new tears that appeared, this time for him and his pain.

"Because I thought that if I didn't tell her," he half shrugged and his voice lowered, "that she wouldn't be able to leave me. That she'd stay."

Pepper furrowed her brow. "How old were you when this happened?"

"About six or so. Didn't _want _to know any better."

"Mmhhh."

She pulled completely away from him to allow her brain to fully process his words by not being distracted by his enthralling touch and intoxicating cologne, stared to her front for a second and then cleared her throat. "That's some good advice, Tony."

"It's more like the sharing of a personal experience." He briefly gazed at her from the corner of his left eye. "_Very _personal. I'd never told anyone about it… until now."

A small smile brightened up her face at his words. She knew what he had meant: to not voice his secret to anyone else. But with it had also come the indirect understanding that he trusted her enough to confide in her. "Thank you for sharing it with me. It must be hard for you to – to feel guilty about that."

"It's only hard when I'm alone."

Pepper nodded and looked down at her hands on her lap. "Good thing your dad's back, then. Now you won't be alone anymore."

"I," he hesitated for a second, scratched the back of his head with his left hand, but in the end he grabbed her right hand one more time and held it in both of his. "I haven't been alone for a while, Pepper."

She was not able to look at his face, so she kept her eyes glued to their hands, which now rested on his left knee. She was afraid of what she would see in his face, or of what she may_ not_ see. She was scared that she was mistaking Tony's words of comfort for a thinly veiled declaration of love or the confession of the start of a crush. But above all, she was _terrified _that he would see in her face what she had kept a secret for so long: that her feelings for him were too strong and of more than just a friendly nature. She decided that another hand squeeze and a nod would suffice for now, and before the moment could become more compromising for her, she sighed aloud, took her hand back and looked towards the roof access door.

"I should eat something before the break's over."

"You don't have to go down there. I can bring you something."

"Nah," she shook her head. "I need to get my backpack, anyway."

"I can get you that, too."

The girl's head snapped to her right to stare at her friend with an upsetting look that he had not expected of her. "You don't have to pity me, Tony. I… I appreciate the gesture, but I can take care of my own food and books."

"I'm not pitying you. And I didn't say you couldn't do it yourself," he said and lifted his hands on either side of his face. "I said I could _help _you."

"I know that's what you _said_, but that's not what you _mean_."

"Of course I mean it. You're my friend, Pepper. If I needed your help, you'd do the same for me."

The ginger opened her mouth to retort that she already _had_ done that last year, but when she realized where the conversation would go if she relayed to him what she had done for his sake last Christmas and how it related to her current situation, he would never forgive himself.

"Sorry," she said and shook her head. "I didn't mean to snap at you."

"I know," he said with a smile.

The two of them remained quiet again for about a minute until Tony suddenly and skillfully jumped off the water tower, only to stand on the ground right below her.

"Come on, let's go." He opened his arms wide and pointed them in her direction, inviting the girl to simply fall into his embrace.

Pepper raised one eyebrow. "Are you kidding me? I'm not jumping from here. I'll break my leg… or worse."

"I'll catch you. I've done it before."

"And you said that I'd shattered your back." She recalled his exact words and expression at finding out she was practically sitting on top of him while in search of a Makluan ring.

"That was before." He scoffed. "I carried you just a couple of weeks ago, remember?"

"You mean you _flew _me." She clarified as she knew he was referring to the day Tony's future grandson had appeared out of nowhere to kill him off and they had been left with no choice but to escape. "And you were wearing the suit. You're not wearing it right now."

"I don't have to. I've got Extremis now, remember? You'll be light as a feather for me."

"I… I don't know, Tony." His offer was tempting. Too tempting and inviting and dangerous for her heart, at that.

Tony lowered his arms with a frown and tilted his head to the left. "Pepper: don't you trust me?"

"I do," she immediately replied, no doubt in her voice. "But… I… well…"

Her head turned to her right to visually map out the path she would have to take to get off the structure without Tony's help. She would have to get up, balance herself on the edge of it, and then precariously step her way down from unsafe place to unsafe place. The wind was starting to pick up, and with her current luck, it was very likely that a sudden gust would send her over the edge of the roof and to her death.

It was simpler to just let Tony take care of her. Even if she felt like a damsel in distress whenever he did. Then again, she had never really had a problem being _Tony's_ damsel in distress, as long as she could take care of herself at any other time.

"Fine," she finally said and held onto the edge of the tower to push herself down. "Are you ready?"

"Yup," he said, a smile returning to his face and his arms opened again.

"OK. On the count of three, alright? One. Two… three!"

She closed her eyes on instinct, pushed herself off the structure, and let her arms fly forward, hoping that if Tony did not catch her, she would at least suddenly develop the ability to fly on her way down. Fortunately for her, the inventor had already calculated the exact path she would take even before she had made the jump, and it was without an issue that he caught her in his arms, held her against him by the waist and slightly above the ground, allowing her to surround his neck with her arms.

He chuckled when her face stopped inches from his and saw that her eyes were still welded shut even after it was obvious that she was safe in his grip. Her hands were clutching the fabric on his shoulders and her entire body was as tense as it had ever been, all signs that she had been afraid of what would have happened to her had he not caught her as he had promised he would.

"See? Light as a feather," he stated and then slowly slid her down against him so that her feet finally touched the floor. "You can open your eyes now, Pep."

She opened only one eye and stared left right with it before her other eye joined the task. She then blinked a couple of times, realized that her feet were firmly planted on the ground, and then became slightly nervous when it became obvious to her that for some reason his hands were still on her waist and her arms were still around his neck. Her eyes stared directly at his chest for a moment while she gulped, and when her gaze traveled from his chest to his lips and then to his eyes, she immediately felt the change in the air between them.

Tony Stark was staring at her lips while he licked his own. And she almost had a heart attack at the way his half-closed eyelids made him seem as if he wanted the same thing she had been fantasizing about them both.

"_Pepper Potts: Private Eye. I could kiss you!"_

"_What's stopping… you?"_

The same thing that was stopping him now: poor timing, losing their friendship, Pepper's dying mother. The _world_.

"Tony," she swallowed hard. "You… you can let go now."

"I know," he said in a soft voice. "You too."

"I-I know," she replied, lowered her eyes to his lips again, but made no effort to break the hug. "I will."

"Me too."

He increased the grip on her waist instead of releasing it, felt his heart racing at having her so close to him, and wanted nothing more than to tell her what he had wanted to tell her for a couple of months now, but had been too afraid to do so. He felt like a chicken at having her so close to him, literally in his arms, her glossy and inviting lips inches away from his, and being unable to seal the deal. All he had to do was lean forward and to the side and he would be able to capture her mouth with his. He just had to close his eyes, press their lips together and she would instantly know what was crossing his mind – how he felt about her.

Yet her ringing phone had other plans, and its loud beeping made them both come out of their trance. The redhead took a step back from him, covered her eyes with her left hand while in her right she held her phone and pressed it to her ear. The inventor, for this part, held back a groan of frustration and shame: frustration at being unable to just up and tell her the truth about his feelings for her, and shame that he was currently thinking about the wants of his heart rather than her current dilemma with her dying mom.

"Today?" He heard her ask whoever was on the other end of the line with a tone of disbelief. "Is it… is it time?"

He furrowed his brow when he saw her left hand come down to her side and fresh tears appeared in her eyes. She quietly nodded to the person that clearly could not see her, but he had a feeling that the caller knew what her silence meant. She continued nodding while information was relayed to her, and when the call finally ended, she pulled the phone away from her face only to stare at its darkening screen with absent eyes.

"Pepper?" He reached out to her with his right arm but did not touch her. "Did… did it happen?"

"I…," she hesitated for a second but then shook her head. "I have to go, Tony."

"Where? Home? Seattle?"

"Yes," she said. "Seattle. I… I have to change my flight but… but I can't stay here. I can't… my mom… that's all I can worry about right now. I can't do anything else… I can't worry about…"

"Let me take you home. It'll be faster. I can fly you there. I can —" He walked up to her, but before he could embrace her or try to comfort her again, she took a step back.

"No. I… I'm sorry, Tony." She said but was not able to stare at him. "I'm sorry."

And just like that, she stormed away from the roof, leaving a hurt and confused inventor in her wake.


	2. The Cab

**Chapter 2: The Cab**

"Newark Airport, please."

The last time she had been in a cab, she had been desperately heading towards the Makluan Temple to help Tony and Rhodey defeat Titanium Man, which had caused her date with Happy to be interrupted against her will. The time before that, she had been in route to pick up Tony at a private airport after he had returned from China in search of the Mandarin and his dad. She had ridden in taxi cabs plenty of times in her life, yet they were not her preferred mode of transportation. Even if she had lived in New York City her entire life and even if the place was known for their loads of taxis, cabs were just not her thing.

Nonetheless, her father had not been able to drive her to the airport as he would have favored. The FBI was being fairly unreasonable about him taking a leave of absence since the agency was already short-staffed due to the looming holiday break, simply because the mother of his daughter had not been his wife for years. Pepper did not understand what difference that made in a situation like this. The woman was still dying, and she had been Virgil Potts's significant other for many years before that.

She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window, which did not provide the same comfort and warmth that her genius friend had offered to her a while ago. She still could not believe she had just walked away from him after that, without a thank you or any sort of appreciative words for his support, but she had not been able to handle everything she had felt at that moment. Even if he later ended up denying it, she had seen it in his eyes what he wanted to do with her – to her, and the burden of guilt was still weighing her down even now. How could she even think about kissing Tony when her mother's life was on the line? How could she have let herself be distracted by his actions when she had a funeral to plan?

Then again, it was not as if _she_ was the sole person accountable for the arrangements that would unavoidably follow her mother's passing, but she knew she would be somehow involved in all of it. In any case, she could not give into the freedom of ignoring reality only to concentrate on his inviting blue eyes. It was not Tony's fault that the timing was not the best, and it was not her fault that her mom was on her deathbed. But it was both of their faults if they lost track of what was important right now, even if that had not been their intention at all.

_I'm sorry, Tony._

She hoped her unspoken words somehow reached his ears. She was no fool, and she knew what had been happening between them for the past few weeks: they had been imperceptibly swaying to the dance of courtship. She was not sure what had changed his mind, but somehow, at some point, Tony had begun seeing her as she did him. And while he had never openly stated or even implied to her that he would never pursue her in any way that was not platonic, she had given up on him when he had briefly dated the manipulative blonde – which had happened shortly after she had asked him what was stopping him from kissing her.

The hints had been subtle, almost initially unnoticeable to her restless mind, but they had been there. In fact, the first hint had occurred the night Tony had met Doctor Doom, up close and personal, to stop Stark International's power core prototype from incinerating the city – the same day Tony and Whitney had broken up.

_Pepper yawned and stretched her arms above her head while sitting on the rolling stool she always hijacked to use Tony's supercomputers. There was so much information she was behind in, so much to input into the logs she maintained for him regarding mission recon, and since it was a Friday night and her homework was already done, there was nothing else she felt like doing to spend the beginning of her weekend._

_Rhodey, being as conservative of his energy as he always was, had already gone home to bed. The fight with Doctor Doom had been a tiring one, no doubt, even in his War Machine suit, and she could not blame him for calling it quits before midnight. Tony was still up and about, however, and as long as she was not tired or he sent her home to rest, she would keep him company as long as he allowed._

_A beeping coming from the computer caught her attention and she immediately stood up. She pressed the screen that showed that the results they had both been waiting for were ready, and she announced with excitement that the task was now complete._

"_Doom's armor scan just finished rendering."_

"_Whoa," Tony said as he stood next to her, having jogged to the screen the moment he had heard the beeping. "No wonder the armor is so powerful. His quantum systems are similar to the Makluan ring designs."_

_Even though he was speaking "nerd" again, Pepper could easily tell that what he was seeing was cause for concern._

"_Gene's rings and Doom's armor… how can that be?" He stared at her with a look of disbelief._

"_I don't know," Pepper said and then stared at the schematic herself, even if she did not understand most of it. "Maybe Doom stole one of the rings from Gene?"_

"_Or maybe Mandarin and Doom are working together to bring me down."_

_Pepper immediately frowned at that statement – such comments always hit the soft spot she still had for Gene. "Or maybe it's just a coincidence, Tony. If Gene wanted to hurt you – to hurt us, he would've done it by now."_

"_Why do you always defend him, Pepper? He betrayed us. ALL of us."_

"_Maybe he wouldn't have if you had told him you were Iron Man when I suggested we did it. Maybe he would've told us he was the Mandarin if he knew he could trust us."_

"_Seriously, Pepper? After all this time? You still stand up for him?"_

"_The only lie he ever told me was about being the Mandarin. Other than that, he always told me the truth. Even if it hurt me. As opposed to other people I know who frequently keep the truth from me," she replied and glared at him long enough to make him flinch. She then backed away from the computer, shook her head, threw her hands in the air and headed to her backpack._

"_I'm out."_

"_No, Pepper. Wait."_

"_Goodnight, Tony."_

"_No! I said wait! Please!"_

_She almost did not stop her trek towards the exit, but the way he had just uttered those words to her made feel regret for thinking of walking out on him after the night he had just had. He had just saved the city from a massive explosion at the possible expense of his own life. He deserved at least a moment to say what he needed to say, and then she would go home for the night._

"_What is it, Tony?" She asked but did not face him, and when he took a long time to respond, she sighed and took another step towards the door._

"_We broke up."_

_She kept herself from taking another step, but she still refused to look him in the eye. "What?"_

"_Whitney and I. We broke it off. Today. A few hours ago. Actually, __**she**__ broke it off."_

"_I'm sorry," she whispered. "Though I'm sure she'll get over whatever you did to her by Monday. You'll be back together then."_

"_I doubt it," he said and she could tell by his voice that he was closer to her now. "I tried to follow your advice, you know?"_

"_Which one?" She asked, grasped the straps of her backpack and swallowed hard._

"_About going out with someone who knew I was Iron Man. It didn't work out."_

_Pepper frowned, and for the first time in this entire awkward conversation, she was able to turn around and faced him. "You told Whitney you're Iron Man? Is that why she broke up with you?"_

_He shook his head. "I __**tried**__ to tell her. But I couldn't."_

"_Why not?" She was taken aback. "You… you've know her longer than you've know me."_

"_I know, but…," he sighed. "I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth."_

_Pepper smiled sadly and then her eyes shifted to the swiveling chair that controlled the Iron Man systems. "You must really care for her, if you couldn't tell her."_

"_How do you figure?" He frowned._

"_Did you ever wonder why I stopped bugging you about telling Gene who you were?" Her gaze returned to him. "It was because I didn't want that knowledge to put him in danger. If you couldn't tell Whitney the truth about who you are, it's because you really like her. Love her, even."_

"_I don't love Whitney."_

"_Are you sure? Have you ever even been in love before?"_

"_No," he said and looked down._

"_Then you probably are. You just don't know it yet"_

"_No, I'm not. I...," he faced her once more even though she was not staring at him again. "I would know if I love someone. I'm not that clueless, you know?"_

_She shrugged, and even though she opened her mouth to speak, she could not say anything else. She just wanted to leave the temple as soon as possible. She could not break down in front of him. He had no idea how much it had affected her to find out he had been dating Whitney behind her back, and she was still not over that particular stab even if he swore they were not together anymore. _

_She ignored his confused state as she headed to the door once more, but this time he ran up to her, stood in her way and then held her waist in his left arm when she tried to go around him._

"_Pepper, wait."_

_She did not ask why he wanted her to wait this time around, but she did not make any effort to move away from his grip either. In fact, she simply focused on holding onto the straps of her backpack that much tighter than before and looked everywhere except at him._

"_I'm trying to make amends here, Pep. I know I betrayed you when I didn't tell you about Whitney – about a lot of things, actually. But I'm trying to be better about it. I want you to trust me again. I __**need **__**you**__ to trust me again."_

_Pepper closed her eyes, aimed her face towards him and finally stared at his eyes. "I know. But… it'll take some time."_

_All he could do was nod and look down._

_She felt his arm loosen up and drop from her waist, and she took it as a sign that the conversation was over. She exhaled as quietly as she could when she began walking towards the door for the third time, and as the sound of the opening contraption offered her the feeling of freedom from this uncomfortable conversation, his next words made her feel as if said liberty was just a sham._

"_I know I don't love her, Pepper. I can't love someone I don't fully trust. I don't think anyone can."_

_Pepper closed her eyes to hold back tears, and before the door closed behind her, she finally spoke up. "You're right. Nobody can."_

Since that night – since she had said those words to him, Tony had done whatever it took to earn back her trust. She had first noticed it the day Obadiah Stane had released the Iron Monger in the city again. Tony had been training her on advanced hacking and cybersecurity techniques to help him run the lab when he and Rhodey were out in the field. She had been shocked at first that he trusted her with his decryption software tech – he was very reserved regarding who got to touch his advanced inventions – but she had also figured that perhaps he was teaching her because he did not really expect her to ever use it at all.

How wrong she had been!

"_Iron Monger's back!" Iron Man told the redhead via the communication systems of the suit. "Pepper, I need you to decrypt those specs and find a weakness in the Iron Monger design. It's our only chance."_

"_So, I have to decrypt a six gigabyte encryption key, AND decipher the technical blueprints and do it fast and my friends are all counting on me. And, oh, yeah, I'm your only chance. Gee, thanks, Tony. No pressure."_

"_I knew I can count on you, Pep."_

"_I'm being sarcastic! This is too much pressure!"_

But she had done it. She had done everything he had asked of her. Even more. By herself. Just in the nick of time. And he had been able to take down Iron Monger thanks to her help.

"_So," Tony said with a knowing smirk as he stared at his redheaded friend. "How did you know how to run that side-by-side analysis to find the weakness in Iron Monger's design? I don't think I'd had a chance to show you that yet."_

"_I'm awesome?" She replied with a smile._

"_Well, that goes without saying. But seriously, how did you figure it out? That platform is extremely complicated."_

"_I had no choice but figuring it out on the spot," she shrugged and looked away from him to focus on the computer screen before her. "You needed me. I did what I had to do. No biggie."_

"_It is a major biggie," he said and pushed down the laptop screen so that her focus was on him. "You did great, Pepper. I just knew you wouldn't let me down. Thank you."_

"_You're welcome," she said and when she tried to push back the screen to continue her work, Tony stopped her by placing his hand on top of hers._

"_Call it a night, Pep." He softly told her. "You've done more than enough."_

"_Not yet," she said and tried to pull away her hand from his, but he did not let her. "I still have to put in the records of this mission – and decrypt other files… and…"_

"_Pepper, trust me. It'll be alright."_

_She stared at his hand on hers, then at his face again, pulled her hand away and then frowned. "Do you want me out of here or something? You know you could just tell me. There's no need to lie to me."_

"_I'm not lying," he said. "And I do want you out of here. Right now."_

_Her mouth nearly hung at his words, but she refused to let him know how much his response had affected her. Instead, she nodded twice, stood up from the chair and turned her back to him to put away her belongings in her backpack. Just as she zipped up her bag, however, she heard him walk up to her and he gave her a warm smile._

"_Where do you think you're going?"_

_Pepper rolled her eyes. "Are you PMSing or something? You just told me to get out!"_

"_I didn't say 'get out,'. I said I wanted you out of here."_

"_Same difference."_

"_AND," he added before he held her upper arm to stop her from leaving. "I never said I wanted you to leave alone."_

_Pepper pulled away her arm. "Oh, right! You're gonna walk me to the exit now? I mean, there's, like, a bazillion high-tech armors in here, technology so advanced it should be illegal, and guns and lasers and bombs and other stuff that can kill me, but these last ten feet towards the door is where things really get tricky around here. Thanks for your concern, Tony Stark!"_

"_Pepper," he held back a laugh. "What I meant to say was… that I… if you want… do you want to go have ice cream with me?"_

_Pepper's face of confusion was comical enough to laugh aloud, but he knew that if he did laugh, she would definitely not agree to his invitation._

"_As in, right now?" She arched an eyebrow._

"_Yeah! It's only…," he stared at his watch. "Ten… at night?"_

"_Riiiight," she said with the greatest tone of disbelief she could muster before she laughed. "You so need to rest. Goodnight, Tony."_

"_No, Pep, I'm serious. I'm not tired. I… I've been waiting for you to finish so I could ask you… but… well… I just knew you'd keep going if I didn't say anything."_

_She rolled her eyes, shook her head and slung her bag onto her back. "Yeah, sure, Tony. Good one."_

"_What? Why don't you believe me?"_

"_Because it's a joke? Ha-ha, right? It's funny. I get it. Bye."_

"_Pepper…"_

"_Later, Tony." She began walking away._

"_Hey, wait up!" He followed after her. "Pepper!"_

"_Rest well." She waved her hand dismissively._

"_Wait, Pep."_

"_See you tomorrow."_

"_Hold on, Patricia Potts!"_

_The mention of her birth name did the trick, and not only did she stop, but she turned around in place and gave him the most shocked look he had ever seen on her._

"_Will you __**please**__ stop?" He asked. "I'm trying to ask you out."_

_Her eyes shifted left and right, she gulped the knot in her throat that had suddenly formed when he had uttered her real name, and she licked her lips in nervousness._

"_You-you're trying to do… what?"_

"_Ask you out," he said again and rested his right palm on the back of his head. "I know it's late, but we don't get a chance to hang out, just the two of us, at any other time anymore."_

"_Oh," she said and part of her excitement went away when he did not call the invitation a date. As far as she was concerned, he just wanted to hang out with her – perhaps as a way to thank her for saving his butt today. It did not appear that he had meant it in the way she had first understood he had. She had misunderstood him. Again._

"_I guess… I guess one ice cream cone wouldn't hurt. My dad's not even home right now."_

"_Even the more reason for you not to leave alone. I'll walk you home after that."_

"_Are you sure? It's not really necessary. I… I've done this alone in the past."_

"_I know. And I shouldn't have let you. I'm sorry about that."_

And he did walk her home after they had had ice cream and had talked. The outing had seemed the furthest from a date in her eyes, but he at least had been honest about what the late snack really was – or so she thought he had. He was starting to give her mixed signals – way too mixed – so she had opted to continue doing what she had always done: be herself, help him out when she could, and try to meet him halfway on his quest to earn back her trust.

"_Oh, no!" Tony exclaimed._

"_What?" Pepper asked._

"_That Reed Richards lecture at the university, deadline for tickets was yesterday. Richards is a science genius. I've been looking forward to his talk for weeks. I'm so lame. I'm –"_

_Before he continued his pity party, Pepper searched her bag, walked up to him, grabbed his right hand, placed an item in it and then released his hand._

"_Going?" He continued. "This is a lecture pass with my name on it." His blue eyes looked up from the pass to stare at Pepper._

"_Yeah. I put your name on my request form."_

"_Pepper, there's only one ticket per student."_

"_Uh-hm. That's right. I wanted to go, but you __**need **__to go. You need one awesome thing in your life right now. You've earned it. Ahh! You're welcome," she added the last part with a wave of her hand._

"_But, I didn't ask you to."_

"_You didn't have to ask."_

Then Rhodey had stopped their conversation, and she was sure that it was for the best. She was also sure that Tony would not mention it again, but he surely had, two days after she had given him the pass, while they were at the lab.

_She was practically yawning every five minutes, not being closer to understanding the last math problem she had left to complete. She knew that if she asked Tony, he would instantly help her solve it, but she wanted to figure it out without his aid. She could not rely on Tony to do her homework all the time – what would happen when they went their separate ways in college? She had to learn how to do her homework on her own._

_Even though she was staring at the problem, her mind was far away from it. She was wondering about her growing feelings for Tony – feelings she did not want to have; not because she was repulsed by the idea of falling for him again – really falling this time – but because his words of weeks ago, when he had told her that he was trying to have her trust him again, were starting to sound less and less romantically inclined with every day that went by. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed he just had just wanted to strengthen their friendship, as it had been severely tarnished by his constant deviation from the truth._

_Her mind was so far gone that she did not feel him walk closer to her, and it was not until he placed a small item on her homework page that she looked up from her paper to stare at him before she looked back to what he had just left on her open textbook._

"_Is this a pass for the Reed Richards lecture?" She asked._

"_Yeah." He replied._

"_Are you giving it back to me? It's yours, Tony. I gave it to you."_

"_I know. I'm not giving it back," he said and then flipped over the pass for her to see her name printed on it. "This one's for you."_

"_How did you get another one? It's waaay past the deadline." She eyed the pass on one side and then the other, trying to find a hint of how it had come to be._

_He shrugged. "I have my ways."_

"_So, you're saying that I didn't have to go through the trouble of putting your name on my form? You could've gotten one anyway?"_

"_No. It cost me a donation to the science lab. And a talk with Principal Nara. And two weeks of volunteering after school."_

"_Then why did you do it? You had your ticket already. I told you I was OK not going."_

"_You did. But I don't want to go alone."_

"_You… you want me to go with you?"_

"_It wouldn't seem right if you didn't."_

She had not even had had to say anything. And even if she had, she was not sure what she was supposed to have said. It was yet another mixed signal from him – or misinterpretation on her part. It had been too soon to tell. She had just grinned at him and he had beamed back, understanding her response with her simple smile. As she was smiling now, thinking about that moment… until the cab driver stated to her that they had arrived at the airport. And reality hit her again. And she remembered why she had not kissed Tony when she had had the chance. Her mom was soon to die.


	3. The Airport

**Chapter 3: The Airport**

"What do you mean you don't have a ticket for me? I called earlier and changed my reservation!"

"I heard you the first time you screamed that, ma'am," the less than helpful or enthusiastic woman at the ticket counter told the redhead. "But what we did was simply put your reservation on standby. This flight is overbooked. There's nothing we can do about that."

"I wasn't told it was on standby! I was told that I had my reservation confirmed."

"I don't know what to tell you, Miss. I can't fix that."

"Ugh! This is ridiculous! Do you know why I'm trying to get out of here? Do you even understand why I need to get on that plane, right now?"

"Because the insane asylum you clearly escaped from is gonna find out you was gone?"

"What?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Look, hon, you holding up the line. Please step side or I will have you removed from the ticket counter… AND the airport."

"But… my flight…"

"I won't ask you again, Miss."

"AGH!" The redhead yelled, grabbed her bags from the floor and returned to her previous seat by the waiting area of the airline that had been supposed to fly her to Seattle, _four _hours ago. She had not even had the opportunity to go through security; the agents had not accepted her boarding pass and had sent her right back. Unless she found something else to do or say to convince one of the airlines to get her on a plane, she would probably miss the opportunity to say goodbye to her mom.

_This can't be happening_, she told herself and covered her face with her hands. _This CAN'T be happening!_

Perhaps she could leave tomorrow? Maybe she could spend the night at the airport, bribe someone to give up their ticket, and leave first thing in the morning, creepy stalkers and homeless people wandering in the airport be damned? Her father was not even home at the moment – he was out on a long mission, again. She did not feel like going all the way back home only to return to the airport almost immediately, and with New York City traffic, it was better not to drive back and forth. No. Going back home was not an option. It was not as if she was going to school anyway. It was not as if she had anywhere else to go.

_Unless…_

An idea came to mind. What if she borrowed one of Tony's suits? He had lots of them, anyway. He could surely spare one for her for a few days. It would not be a problem for him. He mostly only used the Mark II for patrolling either way. And it was not as if she had not piloted the armor before – even if she had done so mostly remotely and inside the stealth armor that one time Doom had messed around with Makluan tech. She could do it. She could fly herself to Seattle inside one of the Iron Man armors with no trouble at all.

Then again, how would she even transport her bags?

_On my back_, she mused. _I can tie them on… with a rope… or super glue them to the armor, whatever!_

Or maybe she could just leave her bags behind? She had cousins her age in Seattle. Surely they would lend her some clothes. Surely one of her aunts would assist her in finding something to wear; as long as it was not her cousin Megan and Megan's mother, Grace. Those two she could not stand – and neither could they stand the redhead.

_And maybe not even Tony can stand me right now. Not after the way I acted with him. Not after the way I treated him today._

If only she had her own armor; the one she had been asking of him for months, she would have been in Seattle by now. She had been sure that after Stane had kidnapped her when he had gone bonkers in the Iron Monger suit – thinking her to be Tony's girlfriend – that Tony would get right to it and get her a suit within days of that attack.

But he had not. Even when she had proven herself over and over that she was ready for it. Even when she had saved his life when Justin Hammer had been successful in kidnapping him. Even when he swore he trusted her with his tech. Even after he had _promised_ her he would make her one with the profits of their new company, Stark Solutions. Had he given her one already? Nope. He had not.

Yes. He had hired her and Rhodey for his company. Yes, Rhodey had been able to buy a new car with his paychecks, and Pepper had been able to buy loads of shoes because of that as well. But her armor – what she really wanted – that was yet to make its way to her, in any tangible form. She was not even sure that he still had the diagram she had given him. And knowing him, he had probably lost it someplace at the temple a long time ago.

Curse him and his sometimes scattered mind!

When she finally pulled away her hands from her face, she grabbed her cell phone and stared at it for a long time, at a loss about what to do. She could not call Tony to borrow a suit of armor. She could not call her father for help – he was not even going to answer the damned phone. Her family in Seattle had no control over the airlines, and no amount of money was going to get her a seat now. She had already spent all of her savings changing the flight her father had gotten her in the first place. She could have used his money to do so but she had not wanted to call him, have him pulled from whatever mission he had and then make him worry about her. His job was serious – dangerous – and the last thing she wanted to do was to lose one parent for making him worry about the one she already knew she was going to have to go without.

_Think, Pepper, think! _She told herself, closed her eyes, hung her head and hit her temples with her fingertips.

Driving to Seattle was not an option. And the train did not go that far. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more her eyes filled with tears. She was not going to see her mother in time. There was no ticket for her now, and the one she had had for two days from now she had forfeited when she had made the change for today. It was the holidays after all – everyone was trying to get to their families. To their kids, to their parents or their grandparents. Everyone was trying to fly to where they felt they belonged. Everyone except her.

_I'm done._ She thought after a sniffle. _I won't get to tell my mom I love her. I won't get to say goodbye._

Maybe she could call the hospital right now, have them patch her through. But then she remembered that her mom was in the ICU and taking a phone inside was not something that could be easily realized; maybe not at all. Maybe they could take a laptop in there and have her video chat with her or at least record her voice and send it over to her. Something was better than nothing, and nothing was what she had right now.

Her phone chimed to tell her she had a text message, and she almost ignored it altogether until a reminder notification beeped a minute afterward. She sighed in desperation, opened her eyes, pulled open her phone and read the message she had just received only to make her frown.

"Look up?" She read it aloud and her head jerked back. She read it again a few times, double-checked that the name on it was correct, and when she finally looked up as she had been told, her eyes immediately found his blue ones in the busy crowd. She remained speechless while he walked up to her, his eyes never leaving hers, and when he was mere feet away from where she sat, he cleared his throat, briefly glanced at her bags on the floor, noticed her red eyes, and then finally spoke.

"I figured something didn't go as planned. I… I've been tracking your phone's location since you left school, and… and then I hacked the airline's database when you didn't move from here for an hour. And then I saw it. And… I…"

"And you, what?" She repeated when he took longer to say his next words even though she already knew what he was going to say to her.

"And I just had to come see you. Make sure you were OK. I just had to come help you out, Pep."

She looked down at her feet and sighed, only looking up and back at him when she felt him kneel before her on the floor.

"Tony… there's no more seats available. I'm stuck here. There's no way I can go see my mom."

"That's not true."

"What?" She asked, hope that he had read her mind and had brought a suit for her quickly rose within her. "Did you hack the availability too? Or did Iron Man threaten one of the rude ladies over at the front?" She glared and almost growled at the one that had been of no help to her, but Tony did not bother to look back.

"Yes," he said with a small smile, stood up from the floor, sat down to her right and handed her an unsealed envelope. "Here."

_This doesn't look like a suit._

"What is this?" She asked as she grabbed and opened the envelope and took out a boarding pass; a boarding pass with Stark International's logo on the corner of it and her name printed on the back.

"Stark Solutions has no private jet, yet." He began in a soft voice. "But my dad's company does. He let me borrow it. Or, let _you _borrow it, actually. The pilot's waiting for you, right now. Gate 45."

Her tears almost took from her the ability to see the ticket clearly, but she knew she did not need to read it to believe him. Tony would not lie to her about something like this. In fact, he had not lied to her about anything in a very long time.

"Tony," she barely choked out. "I thought… I thought that I… I wouldn't… I wouldn't…"

The rest of her words were pushed back into her vocal chords by the lump in her throat. She turned to her right side to face him and gave him exactly half a second to understand what she was about to do. She threw her arms around him and hugged him with all her might, harder than she had ever hugged anyone before in her entire life, and just as she had expected of him, he hugged her as tightly in return.

"I'm sorry," she forced herself to get out despite the overload of feelings she currently felt. "I'm so sorry about today."

"Forget about it, Pepper," he said into her ear as he drew circles on her back with his palms. "It doesn't matter. It's… irrelevant right now."

"No, it's not," she said and then pulled away from him to stare at the ticket in her hand before she shook it with her words. "It's not irrelevant. I… I don't deserve this from you. You… you didn't have to do this for me. You didn't have to go through all this trouble. I… I didn't ask you to. I…"

He pressed his fingers against her mouth to silence her, gave her a sideways smirk, and then shook his head at her.

"I thought you already knew this, Pep: You didn't have to ask."

Her now slightly parted lips let out a warm exhale that made his heart race when he felt it hit his fingers on her mouth. He slowly pulled his hand away from her face, stared at the amassing crowd filling up the security checkpoint line to his left, and he then snapped his fingers when he remembered he still had two more things to give to her.

"Here, take this, too, Pepper."

The redhead hardly had any time to recover from the shock he had just given her, but she still wiped away her tears and found her voice after that. "What is it? What did you forget to give me? The keys to your car?"

"Well, that too," he said and he missed the moment she was visibly taken aback by his words while he took out from his pocket another piece of paper and a set of car keys and gave the latter to her.

"Jonas will not only be flying you, but he'll drive you around, too, if you need him to. I'm giving you a copy of the car keys, though, in case you decide to drive yourself instead. I rented you a company car – a Stark Solutions rented car, so there will be no issue with you driving it around."

"Tony, no…," she stared at the car keys in her hand. "I… I can't…"

"Take it, Pepper," he said in a stern voice she knew left no room for arguments. "And take this too," he added and gave her the piece of paper he still had in his hands.

"What is this?"

"A VIP checkpoint pass. Flash it to the guy over there," he pointed towards the edge of the checkpoint. "He'll let you go right through without waiting in line."

"But, Tony…"

"No buts." He stood up and began gathering her bags from the floor. "Now go. Your mom is waiting for you."

She stood up as well and followed his movements with her eyes as he finished picking up and sorting all of her belongings. She then remained still as he placed them on her, across her shoulders and on her back, and then even tied off the scarf she had around her neck even though it was warm inside the airport.

"There, you're ready." He began physically guiding her by linking their arms together towards the edge of the checkpoint section where he had just told her they would let her skip the line, and once they arrived at the entrance of the VIP checkpoint, he took a step back from her and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Stop wasting time, Pepper. Go."

The redhead was at a loss at what to say to him to show her gratitude towards his actions. It had taken Tony one minute to solve the problems she had been facing for four hours and not once had he done so in his typical gloating manner despite the treasures he had just placed in her hands. Yes, he was now giving her that smug smirk of accomplishment he sometimes got when he saved the day, but compared to everything he had just done for her, he could have used her as a podium for his victory and she would not have minded at all.

He placed his hands inside the pockets of his thick, black jacket, gave her a nod and then turned around to leave her to it, blaming his presence for her lack of movement towards the no-wait checkpoint. He had done what he had come to do: give his redhead a way to see her mom, and now that his job was complete, there was nothing else for him to do but return home.

It was not until he was halfway to the exit of the airport that she not only found her voice again to speak his name, but her legs moved too. By the time the inventor stopped and turned around in place at the call of his name, Pepper was already in front of him, her arms were already around his neck, and her mouth was already pressed against the side of his face.

She let her lips linger on the left side of his mouth, a hairline distance from the edge of his lips to hers. Tony closed his eyes after the shock wore off, and when she pulled away from him, ever so slightly, tears had returned to her. This time, however, he knew they were tears of gratitude and contentment and not of desperation, frustration or pain.

"Thank you," she said to him when he opened his eyes and she held his face in her hands, even if she had to tiptoe to get a good grip on him. "Thank you so much, Tony."

"It's no problem, Pep. Anything for you… for a friend."

She nodded to him; her smile not leaving her face once, and her thumbs ran along his cheekbones. She noticed the way he briefly closed his eyes to delve in the touch, and when he opened them up again it was only because the warmth of her hands was gone from his skin.

"I'll call you when I get there."

"And I'll act surprised and pretend I'm not tracking your phone or the jet."

A small giggle escaped her, and before she lost her nerve and the chance he had given her, she nodded to him one final time, turned on her heels and headed to the checkpoint. This time, Tony did not move from where he stood: he wanted to watch her form make it safely past the checkpoint before he did not see her again until who-knew-when.

She took about five steps toward the man that was already waiting for her at the entrance of the VIP section before she suddenly stopped. She stared down at the ticket in her right hand as she hit the edge of her left hand with it and she considered her unexpected recent thought. Her eyes traveled to the impatient-looking man at his post and then down at her ticket again, and before she knew what she was doing and before she could have time to regret it, she turned around again, stared at the inventor's eyes, walked up to him and stood right in front of him.

"What happened?" He immediately asked, brows scrunched together. "What's wrong?"

"Come with me."

"W-what?" He asked and took his hands out of his pockets as if that would clarify her statement or help with his hearing.

"Come with me." She said again, this time with more determination than the first time.

"Pepper…" he shook his head lightly. "I-I don't think that —"

"Why not?" She stared back and forth between the front exit, the ticket he had just give her and him. "I mean, there's only two days left of school, and we all know you don't need to study for anything. And, well, I'm already borrowing your jet and your car and your pilot… why don't you just come with me, too? Why don't I just borrow you, too?"

"Pepper…," he placed his hands on her upper arms to try to somehow assure her understanding of his words. "Your dad… he would seriously_ kill_ me if he knew I left with you. My dad, I can deal with. But I don't want a riffle shoved in my face."

"He won't, Tony." She pressed her palms against his chest. "Plus, he won't be there until Wednesday. And I can't do this alone. Please, just, come with me. _Please_."

"Pepper," he exhaled loudly, stared towards the gates and then back at the exit of the airport over his shoulder. His eyes then returned to her pleading ones, the ones he knew he could not deny anything to, and he closed his eyes in incoming defeat.

"Are you sure you don't prefer someone else with you?" He pointed out. "Do you really want _me _to go with you?"

"Yes," she said immediately with an unquestionable nod and took a step closer to him, leaving their faces inches from each other. "It wouldn't seem right if you didn't." She gave him a moment to process her last words before she added: "And I don't trust anyone else above you."

He momentarily lost himself in her hazel eyes, sighed part of his nervousness away and then swallowed hard, almost in disbelief at what he was about to do. This had not been part of his plan. He had not even considered the possibility that he would end up leaving with her. He was supposed to return home after this. He was supposed to go back to school the next day. He was supposed…

_To do whatever it took to make her happy._

The ginger was correct. School was a waste of time for him right now – he was already done with all his end-of-semester exams and projects. He was just attending school because that was the expectation, and because that was where Rhodey and Pepper were. Now that Pepper was leaving for Seattle and Rhodey had been informed of the redhead's predicament and had encouraged him to do what he needed to do for her, Tony Stark had nothing to lose and no reason to stay: nothing to return to school for until next year, and everything to gain from being where she needed him.

"Well," he shrugged, "I guess seventeen years is a long lifespan after all, huh?"

"Tony," she playfully slapped his left arm and shook her head. "My dad's not gonna kill you. And I need you there. This is hard for me, especially if I have to deal with it alone. He'll understand."

"I hope so," he mumbled to himself, took out his Stark Pod and began typing on it, prompting the ginger to let out a sigh of relief.

"Telling your dad?"

"Yup, and getting some clothes sent over."

"Yes! Thank you, Tony," she gave him a wide, bright thankful smile and hugged him again. "You have no idea what this means to me."

_And neither do you_ _for me_, he thought as he hugged her back, keeping inside how happy he was that she finally trusted him again, after all this time – that his efforts to show his deep affection for her had not been in vain – and that he would again spend the winter break with her, especially now when she needed it the most. The road to losing a parent was difficult, and he could only hope that his presence would ease for her what he knew was about to take place.

Regrettably, he had no idea what this trip would mean for _him_.


	4. The Hospital

**Chapter 4: The Hospital**

"Are you sure about this? Are you sure I shouldn't just wait outside?"

"Yes, I'm sure," she nodded and continued to lead the way around the halls of the ICU section of the hospital where her mother had been admitted to. It had been a long flight and an even longer ride to their destination, but thanks to the time variance and Pepper's determination, they had made it to the hospital just in time to make the last round of visiting hours for the day.

"Aunt Gina couldn't tell me everything over the phone," the redhead said, her hand firmly holding his hand as she pulled him left and right in the maze that was the ICU wing. "And I need to know how my mom is doing. I need to be ready for it… for whatever happens now."

The genius did not respond to her comment – there was really nothing appropriate to say, although there were many questions he knew he still needed to ask. There were still many details of this trip that needed to be ironed out before they could relax for the night, but he would worry about those once they were brought up. He knew what a dying person looked like, acted like, _smelt_ like, and he knew that once this reality hit his redheaded friend square in the face, she was going to need someone else to worry about the fine points of the entire ordeal.

As he let her silently drag him all around the place, Tony could not help but recalling what his personal journey with his mother's passing had been. He may have not been as aware as he should have been when it happened, and even a genius such as he was nothing but a child at the tender age of six. Yet, he could still remember the stench of sterilization that invaded his senses when he visited his mom. He could still remember how devastated his father had been and how broken he had looked, and he could still feel the weight of the world on his shoulders when everyone had been in her room, minutes before she had closed her eyes for the last time, all pressuring him to do one thing: the one thing he had not been able to force himself to do.

_"Don't you have something to say to your mom, Tony? Didn't you say you had something special to tell her?"_

_ Six-year-old Tony Stark stared at his uncle with fear as he vehemently shook his head left and right. He wanted everyone to stop forcing him to do what he did not want to do in the first place. He wanted everyone to just shut up, leave the room and let him spend time alone with his mom. He did not believe what the doctors were saying – not even what his own father had told him. His mother could not be leaving him forever. She had promised she would always be with him. And mommies never broke their promises; especially __**his**__ mommy._

_ "Mama," Tony stared at his mother, who had been kind enough to let him jump in the bed with her and did not mind his little arms surrounding her slim frame. "When are we leaving, Mama? When can you come home with me?"_

_ "I can't, Tony," Maria Stark weakly replied. "I can't come back with you. You… you have to be brave."_

_ "But I don't wanna be brave, Mama." Tony frowned. "I just want you to come home with me. Why can't we just go home?"_

_ "Son," Howard began. "We've talked about this. Your mom is going to go away soon. You need to tell her that special thing we talked about, remember?"_

_ "But, Daddy, I can't."_

_ "Why not?"_

_ "I…," he stared at everyone that was inside the room before his eyes landed on his father's again. "I just can't."_

_ "Maybe the boy needs some privacy, Howard," Tony's uncle said. "Let's give him a minute with Maria, OK?"_

"Tony, are you OK?"

Pepper's voice interrupted his day-dreaming and all he could do was stare at her with a disarrayed look, nod dumbly at her a couple of times and then hope that she had not been saying something significant to him. She stared back at him with a confused look of her own, but she decided not to press the matter further. It appeared to her as if whatever had caught his mind was important enough for him to ignore her unimportant words, and she was just glad that he had agreed to accompany her right now.

Instead of asking if they had arrived, Tony looked around himself to try to determine where they were. There were no major markings or signs anywhere near them, but the fact that Pepper was now sitting in a chair that was directly next to a large door told him that she either had gotten too lost and was taking a break or that she had found what they had been looking for. He stayed standing for a little while, trying to figure out what was happening behind the closed doors by using Extremis on the computers inside, and the moment he finally found Gillian Potts' status, he wished he would not have.

His eyes landed on the unsuspecting redhead, and he instantly felt guilty for what he had done. His thoughts immediately went to the memory of the advice he had given her, just hours ago, regarding what she should do when she saw her mom. His advice seemed so stupid now, so damaging to her, but he truly had not known what the situation was when he had uttered those soon-to-be-painful words. He knew that his advice would now haunt her forever, just as it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

_Pepper_, he wanted to call her name, call her attention, and tell her the truth beforehand. But before he could find it in him to give her a heads up, before he even gathered the courage to speak a word, the door to the room where Gillian Potts was being kept opened suddenly and without ado, revealing the presence of a brunette girl around his and Pepper's age.

"Patricia?" The girl said in shock. "When did _you_ get here?"

"Megan," Pepper practically jumped off the chair and swallowed hard, her anxiety obvious to the inventor and to the new girl. "Is Aunt Gina here?"

"She's taking a break," Megan answered, took a step back to stare at the ginger more comfortably, and all but scrutinized her up and down without shame or discretion. "She'll be back in an hour."

"Can I see my mom?" Pepper cut right to the chase even though the last thing she had wanted was to plea to the girl that had made her childhood miserable. "Can I talk to her?"

Megan scoffed. "_Now_ you have time to talk to her? I thought you'd be too busy doing whatever it is that ungrateful bitches like you do in their spare time? What have you been doing all these years? Getting arrested? Starting fights? Losing weight, _Fatty Patty_?"

Tony was taken aback by the insolence display, but he was too shocked to say or do anything else other than to stare. Pepper had never mentioned there was bad blood between her and her mother's side of the family, and as far as he was aware, Pepper had regular communication with her mother despite her parents' separation, however long ago that had taken place.

"Don't. Call. Me. That." Pepper replied between gritted teeth.

"What? Bitch, ungrateful or _Fatty Patty_?"

"_All_ of the above."

"Mmhhh," Megan shrugged. "I guess the _Fatty Patty_ no longer applies. You must have lost like 100-pounds since I last saw you."

"I _wasn't _overweight!" Pepper replied, her fists at her sides proof that she was trying very hard not to break the other girl's neck. "I was just ten pounds over where I should've been! When are you going to let that go?!"

"Maybe when you realize that with those freckles and that ugly haircut of yours, ten extra pounds was all you needed to look even more pathetic than you already did… _do_."

"Can you just answer her question?" Tony finally snapped and walked closer to his friend to stand next to her. "Can Pepper see her mom now?"

"Who the _hell_ are you?" Megan replied to Tony with a look and tone of antagonism that surprised even him.

"I'm To—"

"He's a friend," Pepper immediately replied as she gave Tony a look of desperation, silently asking him to not say anything else. "Of the family. He… he gave me a ride. Can I see my mom, please?"

"Which family?" The brunette asked as she ignored the redhead's question and engrossed herself in inspecting the boy's looks, just as she had examined her cousin just seconds ago. She eyed him up and down and from different angles a few times, narrowed her eyes even further when she reached his face for the nth time, and the moment her eyes widened and her mouth went agape, Pepper closed her eyes and looked away.

"You… you're Tony Stark!"

"Yes," he said with a mild tone of irritation, not sure what Pepper had expected him to say when it was obvious that the girl would ultimately identify his familiar face. "Yes, I am."

Megan chuckled bitterly, took a step closer to the inventor and then gave him a condescending one-sided smirk. Her eyes then returned to a redhead that was trying to look at everything but at the scene unfolding next to her, and after a roll of her eyes, Megan spoke once more.

"It was him, _wasn't_ it?"

Pepper's head snapped to her left to stare at her cousin, and said girl crossed her arms over her chest in obvious disapproval of her cousin's actions, yet felt triumphant over her as well.

"It _had_ to be him." Megan insisted. "It all makes sense now. Who else could it have been? You didn't strike me as the gold digger type, though, _Fatty Patty_. Or should I now start calling you _Slutty Patty_?"

"What is she talking about?" Tony asked with a frown, his eyes immediately searching Pepper's.

"Oh," Megan's face was one of surprised satisfaction. "You haven't told him, have you? He doesn't know what you did! Oh, this is priceless!"

"Megan, shut up." Pepper snarled. "I just want to see my mom, and if you don't tell me where she is and how I can get that door open RIGHT NOW, I'll beat it out of you in any way I can."

"Try it," Megan challenged, not at all intimidated by the ginger's words. "You know that the moment you make one of your scenes here, the doctors won't let you stay or even come back until _after _she dies."

"Then why don't you just tell me how to get in there and we get this over with?"

The brunette stared back and forth between the angry redhead and the equally upset-looking celebrity that was standing before her. Her gaze then landed on the door that led to her Aunt Gillian's room, but before she released the information that Pepper so desperately sought from her, she decided that passing on the opportunity to humiliate the girl was as unforgivable as what the redhead had done last Christmas time.

"How do _you_ know Tony Stark?"

"Why does that even matter?" Pepper snapped back.

"We met in school," Tony replied, to Pepper's surprise.

"Really? _You_ go to_ school_?" Megan asked, even though she was well aware that the son of the founder of Stark International had been attending school since the plane incident.

"Yes," Tony deadpanned.

"Tony, what –"

"What sch—" Megan interrupted Pepper.

"The Tomorrow Academy in New York City," the genius replied with little enthusiasm. "We're both seniors and we graduate in May, and we've been friends for almost two years. I'm seventeen years old, I live with my dad and, yes, I'm filthy rich. No: Pepper's not a slut. And no, she's not my girlfriend. And yes, you_ do_ look like a whore in those shoes," he pointed to her feet. "And yes, you so need to lose weight. And no: screwing only four times with the same guy in the back of his car does _not_ mean you can still call yourself a virgin. And _fuck_ no: you're not keeping Pepper from seeing her mom."

Before Megan could even finish understanding what he had done and said, Tony grabbed Pepper's hand, pulled her with him and around the brunette, arrived to the door just in time for it to unlock and open, waltzed through it with determination, and left Megan breathing and blinking rapidly, too stunned to quickly grasp she had just been insulted, humiliated and one-upped by a man she had never met before.

Tony could feel Pepper's quizzical eyes on him as he led her down the hall, and before she could ask the questions that were in her mind, the genius cleared his throat and spoke first.

"I hacked her phone with Extremis," he suddenly stopped, looked left and right at an intersection of halls and then turn left. "I may have read her text messages, and seen her pictures – and read her e-mails… and checked her _MyFace_ private conversations."

"And… the door…"

"Extremis."

"And answering her question…"

"She wanted to know and she wouldn't have been distracted enough to let me do what I did if she wasn't paying attention to what I told her. Besides, it's not like I told her anything that was a secret. Everyone knows I go to school and where."

"But, Tony…"

"Nothing, Pep." He said with finality and stopped in front of a large glass wall. "It got us here. That's all that matters."

"Got us where?" Pepper asked, brow furrowed until she followed Tony's gaze, looked behind herself and saw her mom.

The scene was disheartening, and if it was not because Tony had already seen before what people looked like surrounded and connected to as many machines and tubes as Pepper's mother currently was, he would have been as shocked as the redhead appeared to be. He already knew it – knew _everything_, of what this poor woman had endured for twelve months. Extremis had a way of helping him find the information he needed on the spot, and for once he wished that his mind were not as bright as it tended to be.

"Pepper," he began, placed a hand on her left shoulder, and he wanted nothing more than to warn her of what was to come, but the ginger was lost in her own thoughts – lost enough to not hear him or feel him at all.

"Mom?" She simply took a step toward the glass wall to rest her palms against it and barely held back a whimper of misery. Behind the tears that filled her eyes, Pepper could see the signs of looming passing in the room and on her mother's face. Her red hair was completely gone, and so was the color on her cheeks. She looked like nothing more than a skeleton wrapped in pale-colored skin, holding on to life only by the countless medical devices surrounding her bed.

Was she even awake? Could she even hear her? Would she know that she was here? Would she get the chance to do what Tony had suggested she did? Would she even get a chance to say her goodbyes to her? Would her father make it on time?

_Mom._

Suddenly, her body mass was too much to bear.

Tony caught her in mid-fall, slid to the floor with her, and held her tightly against him as she loudly sobbed. She was not sure what she had expected to see, but this was definitely too much to handle at one time. She knew her mother had had surgery to get a _minor _brain tumor removed. She knew she was following up the operation with _mild_ chemotherapy and _preventative _drugs. She was aware that recovery was long and hard, but she had not even considered the aftermath of all that. She had not imagined her state to be so severe. She had not imagined her mother's last moments on Earth would be so _frightening_ to her.

_She lied to me._ Pepper finally realized. _She told me it wasn't bad… but it was! It was bad!_

Her mother had _lied_ to her, all these months. To protect her, mind you, but lied, she still had. To keep her from seeing her like _this_. To keep her from feeling like utter _shit_. To keep from her daughter the sad truth that she would go without her mother for the rest of her life.

Tony had told her once, that he could not love someone he did not trust, and she had wholeheartedly agreed with him. She thought she believed this herself, she thought she was sure of these principles, so she had measured Tony's actions against this bar of high expectations. Yet now she knew it was not true. You could love someone who you did not trust. You could love someone that lied to you. You _could_ love someone who kept the truth from you. How could you not, if you truly love them and they loved you in return?

Did not people already lie to those they loved to keep them happy and safe?

"Patricia?" She heard her name being uttered by a soft voice and she instantly knew who the voice belonged to. She had missed that voice, that sense of serenity and protection she always felt when he was around. It was not the same feeling she had for her father, her other uncles or even her male friends. It was a special kind of bond; one that she had failed to nurture for the past year, to her shame.

"Sweetie, look at me."

Pepper pulled her face from Tony's chest and shoulder and looked up to stare at her Uncle John. He was her mother's older brother and had always made Pepper feel important and loved. It was a stark contrast to the relationship she had with his daughter and wife, and perhaps this was the root of why Megan and Grace never liked Pepper that much.

"Is she… is she going to die?"

The question was moot, but Pepper had still asked it because she hoped he would tell her otherwise. Her uncle never lied to her, never sugarcoated anything, but he always made it so that she understood and accepted the realities she had not wanted to face when growing up. He had helped her cope with her parents' separation and divorce, and the decision of the courts to send her over to her father rather than her mother. He had supported her when she had wanted to take martial arts classes even though her cousins poked fun at her because the sport was not ladylike. And he was one of the very few people who believed that she had what it took to be a spy.

"Do you want to see her? Up close, I mean?"

Pepper nodded and did not realize that Tony had helped her stand up. It was not until the inventor took a step back to give the family members some space and her uncle stared questioningly at the young man with his niece that Pepper came to remember she was not alone.

"Uncle John, this is my friend, Tony. Tony, this is my uncle, John."

The genius extended a hand to him and the older man returned the gesture, but not before he stared at the inventor up and down with a warning glare that even Pepper knew exactly what it meant: I've got my eyes on you.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Tony said and John reciprocated with the appropriate response.

"Thank you for keeping my favorite niece some company, Tony."

"Anytime, sir." The blue-eyed boy responded with a nod.

"Ready, Patricia? We need to prep you to go inside."

"Yes," she began wiping her face with her hands, but Tony took out a handkerchief and handed it to her.

"I'll be right here when you come back, Pep."

The older man arched a single brow at the strange nickname the billionaire had used for his niece, but when the redhead simply nodded and did not make a fuss out of it, it became obvious to anyone witnessing the scene that this was commonplace between the two teens.

"Thanks again, Tony."

"Don't mention it, Pepper."

Pepper and her uncle began walking towards the front desk to arrange Pepper's visit to her mom, and as they placed some distance between the inventor and the attending nurse, Tony heard the older man ask his redhead something along the lines of: _Was that Tony Stark?_


	5. The Waiting Room

**Chapter 5: The Waiting Room**

She spotted her prey from the end of the hall, and now that her cousin was busy seeing her mother in her deathbed, it was the perfect time to break the man's little neck. She still could not believe that he had treated her that way, so poorly for a man of his stature, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve that she knew for a fact would level the playing field, once and for all. Tony Stark, celebrity or not, would regret ever crossing Megan Clark. No one spoke to her that way. No one at all.

"Waiting for your whore?"

Tony narrowed his eyes but did not face the brunette and kept his head hung, gazing at the floor between his feet. He had moved himself to the waiting area, away from the glass wall of Gillian's room, so as to not distract Pepper's visit. He had not expected Megan to actively seek him out, not after how he had spoken to her, but it appeared as if the girl still had much to say to him – or about Pepper behind her back.

"Are you really trying to ignore me?" She asked and walked closer to him until she knew he could see the tips of her expensive pumps. "Don't you want to know _Slutty Patty_'s secret?"

"_Don't_ call her that."

"Why not? Words only sting when they're true."

Tony's head snapped up and he glared at the girl. "Pepper's no slut. You should know that, since you're one and all. She acts nothing like you do."

"No, she doesn't. If she did, she would have not bailed on us last year, and she would've come to celebrate Christmas with her mom… when she still remembered she had a daughter in the first place."

The genius pushed his back against the wall, crossed his legs and arms to somehow defend himself from what he knew was coming, further narrowed his eyes at the brunette, but did not interrupt what she was clearly dying to tell him.

"I bet you didn't know it was her turn to come here. I bet she didn't tell you, did she? She called my aunt last year and told her she couldn't make it, but that she would come by the next. She said she was needed in New York and that she would make it up to her this year."

Megan paused her spiel for a moment, waiting for the billionaire to process her words, and when his eyes moved away from staring at her and aimed towards the exit of the waiting room, Megan smirked in victory.

"Yup. She chose to stay behind, with you, I presume. Actually, now that you're here, I _know_ it was you. Aunt Gilly has been sick since last year, and she was supposed to tell Patricia about it when she came by to visit. But she never did. So Aunt Gilly decided not to tell her about it until she saw her in person again. But Patricia was so busy the entire year because, I gather, she was spending all of her spare time fucking with you."

Tony stood up from the chair so fast it took Megan by surprise, as much as she was shocked to feel the fingers of his right hand digging into her left forearm.

"Don't you _dare_ talk about her like that! You don't know what you're talking about. Pepper is my friend, nothing else. Yes, we spend a lot of time together, but I respect her – a lot more than you respect yourself."

"If you… respected her so much," she said with barely controlled whimpers of pain that made Tony release her arm. "Then you would've told her _not_ to stay with you. You would've told her to come see her mom. But you're selfish, spoiled… and who can say no to an easy fuck, huh?"

"Stop it!" Tony spat. "If you don't spot saying that right now, I'm… I'm…"

"You're, what? Gonna tell on me? To who? No one here knows you, and no one would believe Patricia if I told everyone she's screwing around. Everything points to it to be true, and you being here is just further proof that you two have something going on the side."

"She needed a ride. Her flight was cancelled because of the weather."

"And you swooped in to keep her happy… because happy women are willing to spread their legs for a guy."

"Is that how you get your stuff? Is that why you think that of every girl you know?" Tony all but snarled. "Because you could spread them all you want for me… But I don't buy secondhand."

"No," she said with a smug smile. "You buy imitation."

"Megan?" A voice from the door of the waiting room stopped Tony's retort. "Megan, who are you talking to?"

Megan took a step back to place some distance between the irritated genius and herself, and Tony felt a small bit of regret when he noticed her rub the arm he had almost broken with his Extremis-enhanced grip.

"Mom, do you not recognize who this is?" She pointed towards the billionaire. "He came with Patricia… to drop her off."

Grace, Pepper's aunt and Megan's mother, took small steps inside the waiting room to stare at the young man before her. The inventor could tell that the woman and the girl were no doubt related when the older woman stared him up and down in an eerily similar fashion the daughter had recently executed on him. Before the woman could figure it out, however, Tony decided to spare himself a repetition of the previous scene and just spoke up.

"I'm Tony Stark," he reluctantly extended his hand towards the woman to show her some type of courtesy, but she did not make any effort to return the gesture. "I'm a friend of Pepper's."

"Pepper?" Grace looked to her daughter for help.

"Patricia, remember?" Megan stated. "She always wanted to be called by that ridiculous nickname. As if that were any better than Patricia Marie Potts.  
>Such a simpleton name."<p>

"Now, Megan," Grace began. "Not everyone is blessed with beauty, looks and good luck. I've told you that Patricia is family, at the end of the day… despite how dishonoring to us that is."

"You're joking, right?" Tony asked, his entire demeanor showing how upset he was by the entire conversation. "Are you seriously talking trash about your family? In front of a friend?"

"She's not really related to me," Grace said. "Only by law."

"But she's related to me," Megan rolled her eyes. "Thank goodness we don't share the same last name. What an embarrassment that would've been!"

"I bet," Tony growled. "Why in the world would you want to be related to a person who is friends with a billionaire, huh?"

"I think the term_ friends_ is putting it too lightly." Megan snickered. "More like booty call, I think."

"Megan!" Grace spat. "What have I told you about using that despicable term?"

"To use when appropriate?"

"Absolutely!" Grace nodded along. "Who're you talking about?"

"Patricia and him."

"Really?" The woman began fanning herself. "Well, I'd never imagined that my husband would be related to an easy woman. That must be a shame for the Potts family, too!"

"Stop talking," Tony said with a shake of the head. "Just, stop talking. "

"Megan, Grace, are you in here?"

_Saved by the bell_, the inventor thought when he saw Pepper's uncle walk inside the waiting room.

"Yes, Daddy," Megan gushed. "We were just getting to know Pepper's boyfriend."

"I'm not… she's not…," Tony turned to face the man. "Sir, we're just friends."

"Good," John said. "Because she needs a friend right now."

Before Tony could ask what had occurred, the redhead dragged her feet inside the waiting room. Her head was hung, her posture crushed and it appeared as if she was not even aware that she was moving her feet. Tony's face of anger that had appeared thanks to the hateful conversation he had been partaking in with the two wretched women instantly disappeared when he saw his friend's lost gaze. It was worse than when he had seen her on the roof of the school. It was worse than when her father had been beaten to within an inch of his life by Whiplash.

"What happened?" Tony asked even though he knew the answer to this. Pepper had finally found out what was wrong with her mother – she now knew what he had learned himself, when they had arrived.

"Here," John handed a set of keys and a card to Tony and the inventor stared at them in his hand. "When she's ready, take her to my house. She needs to rest. Visiting hours are over. Have her come back tomorrow at eight AM."

"OK," Tony nodded even though his eyes were now on Pepper and not on John. The inventor barely noticed when the man took his stuck-up wife and the daughter from hell away from the waiting room, as all he could focus on at the moment was on his friend's devastated form.

He took slow steps towards her, afraid he would scare her if he moved too fast. He wanted to hug her, to pull her to him and shield her from everything he knew she had just learned, but he did not want to overwhelm her. He then thought back to his own personal experience of losing his mother, thought about what he would have wanted someone to do for him back then, and used this as a starting point on what to do for her.

"It's not your fault," he whispered to her. "It's nothing you did, Pep."

Her hazel eyes slowly lifted from staring at the floor until they found his. Her lips began trembling again, her already blotchy eyes filled with even more tears, and she then threw herself against him. Her arms went around his waist, her head hid between his left shoulder and his neck, and she shivered with every word she said.

"Tony!" She half yelled, half moaned in his ear. "I can't… I can't tell her anything… I can't… she… she doesn't know…"

Tony closed his eyes, ran his right hand down her hair and rested his left one on her lower back, waiting for the news he already knew was coming. The news he had learned thanks to Extremis.

"She forgot, Tony! She-she… she forgot me!"

And there it was. The reason why he felt guilty for giving the advice to tell her mother that she loved her, the reason why Pepper would now feel guilty forever for not being able to follow through with said advice: Gillian Potts had lost her memory, weeks ago, a clear sign that the brain tumor had taken more out of her than the doctors had been able to predict. He had not known about it – he would have not known about it until they arrived here – but the harm was already done. Now Pepper would have to live with the same culpability he did, and all because of him and his stupid advice.

"It's not your fault," he told her again as he hugged her tighter. _It's mine_; he wanted to also say even though he knew there was nothing he had done wrong for this to happen.

"I can't do this, Tony." She shook her head. "I can't try to make it better for her. I can't… she… she doesn't even _know_ I'm here."

"But you _do_, Pepper. You do and you know this is where you should be. Just because she doesn't know you're here, that doesn't mean you can't help her."

"But I _can't_ help her! I can't do anything for her! All I can do is watch her die! Just like you did with your mom!"

"But if you leave, you'll regret it. All your life. Don't make my mistake, Pepper. Don't screw it up like I did."

"Take me home," she whispered, completely disregarding his words. She did not want to hear them now, or ever. She just wanted to close her eyes, forget about everything and then wake up and find out it was all a bad dream. "Take me back home, please."

"No."

"Tony, please."

"No, Pep," he replied with utmost authority, and he then felt the anger rise in her when she squared her shoulders and began lifting her head from his chest.

"Fine!" She spat and pushed him away. "Then I'll WALK there myself."

"Pepper, wait!"

"NO!"

"Pepper, stop!" He twirled her, grabbed her by her arms and held in her place.

"Let me _go_!" She struggled against him.

"No!" He replied, increased his grip on her to keep her where she was, but not tight enough to actually hurt her. "Pepper, listen to me! _Listen_! Calm down!"

"I don't have to listen to you! To anyone! I just want to go! Let me go or I'll scream!"

"Calm down and I'll let you go!"

"You asked for it!" She threatened, took in a deep breath to yell and then froze in place when she felt her mouth being covered by his. Her eyes snapped open, the air she had just gathered was slowly expelled through her nose, and before she could process the entire moment, Tony pulled away from her.

He was breathing hard for some reason, and he soon realized it was because he was afraid of what she would do now – how she would react to him stealing a kiss from her. At least she was not screaming anymore or trying to run away, but she _was_ staring at him with an incredulous look he was sure he also had on his face.

"That," he said once he found his voice again and she was yet to say anything at all. "That's not how I wanted our first kiss to go."

She blinked rapidly, exhaled in short breaths, but did not move or speak. He uncomfortably stared left and right, scratched the back of his head, tapped his left foot on the floor, and then cleared his throat several times. He opened and closed his mouth several times, made some strange noises that were supposed to be coherent sentences, but when more of the same sounds kept coming out, he flared his nostrils, frustrated with himself, hung his head, and then grabbed her hand.

"Where…," she gulped. "Where are we going?"

"Out." He said and used Extremis to map out places nearby.

"Out, where? Home?"

"No. Just… out of here for a while."

"But, Tony…"

"No, buts," he said, spared her a glance over his shoulder that told her there was no room for argument, and then dragged her along with him, not stopping until they reached the destination he had just found.

xxxXXXxxx

She sat on an old piece of a fallen log, the only place not completely covered in snow. She was hugging her legs against her chest, her chin rested on her knees and she was staring at the falling snowflakes on the frozen lake a few feet from where they sat. The snow shower was not hard enough to bother either of them, but it was noticeable enough to distract her as she ordered her thoughts.

Her mind had always been able to juggle several things at the same time, but at no point had those things been equally important to her. It was easier to manage simultaneous ideas when their ranking was obvious to her and when only one stood highly above the rest. It was a whole different animal, though, to try to prioritize and analyze situations that were all intricate parts of her life.

On one side, there was her mom and her imminent death. With it came the guilt of knowing she could have spent more time with her had she come to Seattle to see her last year instead of spending her winter break trying to cheer up a lonely billionaire. This thought lead her to feeling guilty _about_ feeling guilty for spending time with the blue-eyed boy in his time of need. When she had made the decision to stay in New York for the holidays last year, she had had a mom and dad, and he had had neither. Today, she was halfway to being like him: having only a father as the single parental unit in her life.

On the other side, there was this cloud of unspoken feelings looming over them. Even though she wanted to believe and claim that what she felt for him was not as important as the idea of her dying mom, it was because of her feelings for him that she was in this situation. It was because of her feelings for him that she had stayed behind. And it was because of his feelings for her that he had come with her, despite everything else blatantly pointing out that he should not have.

And it had been because of how he felt about her that he was forcing her to stay here, in Seattle, and see it through to the end. Because he wanted her to do the right thing, even if it hurt her. Because he cared for her too much to let her make the wrong choice, again. The wrong choice he had once made.

And then he had kissed her… and that had placed the icing on the cake.

"I'm not taking you home, Pepper." He casually said from his standing position across from her sitting one. He had been resting against the same tree, staring at her the entire time they had been there, as if he was readying himself to run after her if she decided to suddenly escape his watch. She knew that he knew there was nowhere she could run to. He had brought her to a freaking forest in the middle of nowhere, and if it was not for their current situation, the beautiful, secluded location would have astonished her to no end.

"I know," she said, shifted her gaze from the frozen lake to his eyes, and then forced herself to not break the stare. "Why did you bring me here?"

"To think," he said as if it was obvious. "To think about what you want to do."

"I could've done that in the parking lot."

"No," he shook his head. "You couldn't have."

"Why not?"

"Because…," he gulped. "Because when the going gets tough, it's easier to see the big picture from the outside."

"Are you taking that metaphor literally? Because whoever said it didn't mean outside the building or the city. They just meant –"

"As a spectator, not a participant." He finished for her. "I know what they meant. But it's hard to do that when you're in the same place you've gotten the bad news."

She held the stare for a few more seconds, daring him to look away, but when he continued to easily gaze into her eyes, she was the one to give up first. Her eyes found interest at his feet, and before she could stop the words from coming out, they just flowed out of her lips to ask what she was currently curious about.

"Why are you here?" She almost did not hear herself state the inquiry, but in the stillness of the forest and the dead of night, she knew that he had heard her loud and clear. "What's your problem, now?"

"You," he said without missing a beat. "Kissing you, to be more specific."

She raised one eyebrow and looked up at him, knowing damn well that after that statement, he would not be staring at her. "Regret it? Wish you could take it back?"

"Yes," he deadpanned, licked his lips and then looked back at her again. "But not because of what you're thinking."

"What am I thinking?"

"That I didn't want to kiss you. That I hadn't wanted to kiss you for some time."

"Then why do you regret it?"

"It was not the right thing to do then… it was not even the right place. It was…"

"The worst possible time," she said and all he could do was look away and nod.

They stayed silent and unmoving for a long time until she stretched her cramped legs in front of her, massaged the back of her neck and then stood up and walked up to him. He heard her approaching steps but did not face her until she placed a finger on the right side of his chin, pulled his head towards her, and before he could try to do anything else, she pulled herself forward and locked her lips with his.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, he returned the kiss. His hands found their way to her lower back and hers ended up holding his neck in place. Their heads swayed left and right, finding the perfect synchronized motion that would allow for the kiss to deepen and send shivers of pleasure all over them. This was not the first kiss for either of them, but it surely was the first one that made them feel this way.

They both broke the kiss at the same time when the need for air became non-optional, yet their faces did not end up far from each other. Their noses were still touching, their breaths still bathed the other's lips, and even though their eyes were half-closed and all they could see were each other's mouths, they both knew that the feeling was mutual – that the action had been welcomed by both of them.

"I don't want you to regret it," she told him. "I don't want you to regret it at all… but I can't deal with this right now. I want to… we need to… but not now."

"I can wait," he told her and ran his fingers up her spine. "I can wait as long as you need me to."

Thankfully for her, when it came to them, Tony truly and absolutely knew how to wait.


	6. Times Square

**Chapter 6: Times Square**

_The little boy had no idea how long he had been in there with his mother, but all he cared about was that there was no else but him and her in there. People were so loud sometimes, talking loudly and agitatedly, using words he did not understand, and he wanted to understand. Especially when they spoke about his mommy, and about when and where she was going to go soon._

_ "I miss you, mommy," Tony said, closed his eyes and held on to his mother. "Daddy won't play with me. Jarvis won't play with me. No one wants to play with me."_

_ Maria did not say anything and her eyes kept wanting to close. She was trying to hold on as long as she could, but even she knew the end was near. She weakly lifted her hand and stroked her son's head, relishing in the gesture when her little boy hummed in happiness at his mother's gentle touch._

_ "I love you, Tony," she told him. "I'll always be with you."_

_ "Mama?"_

_ "Be brave, Tony. Be… brave…"_

_ "Mommy?" Tony's head snapped to stare at his mother. "Mommy, open your eyes. Mommy? Mommy?"_

_ "I love you… I… love…" She was unable to finish her last sentence. Her hand dropped on Tony's shoulder and the little boy screamed when the heart monitored attached to the woman beeped to announce the flat line. From all the things that were around him at the moment, from the very few things he actually understood, he knew that the constant beeping meant his mother's heart was still beating, and his dad had told him that the heart was the most important part of the body – the one that kept everything else working and people alive. He knew what the steady beeping meant: he knew because he had asked his father to make his mother a new heart, thinking that was the only issue she had, but Howard had told him it was not so easy to repair._

_This was why he had not believed his mother was going to leave him: because they could always build her a new heart. That was what his dad did; he made things. Surely, it would not be difficult for him to build his mother a new heart. But now he feared his father had taken too long to do this, now that the heart machine told the little boy that his mother was gone._

_ "Mama?!" Tony shook her but she did not respond. "MAMA?!"_

_ "Tony!" Howard Stark yelled as soon as he opened the door, nurses and doctors trailing behind. "Tony, come with me! Now!"_

_ "But, Daddy!" The boy pointed to his mother. "Mama needs a new heart! You have to make her a new heart! Hurry!"_

_ "Tony, stop!"_

_ "No," Tony said and clung to his mother, trying with all his strength to outdo his father. "We're not done talking! I can't go yet!"_

_ "Mr. Stark, we need to get the boy out of here," one of the doctors said to the older inventor. "Please, now."_

_ "NO!" Tony said more fervently, tears streaming down his face. "I can't go! I can't!"_

_ "Tony!" Howard said when he finally pulled his son from his deceased mother. "We have to go now."_

_ But Tony did not want to go. He still had not told his mother he loved her. He had not told her that she was the best mom in the world. He had wanted to tell her all of this and more, but they just had not given him enough time._

_ "MAMA!" Tony kicked and screamed, but there was nothing he could have done against his father's grip, and before he knew what had occurred, he was left alone in the hall, crying as if there were no tomorrow while all the adults talked loudly and not to him._

Mommy_, the boy thought as he prayed that his dad could somehow fix his mom. His dad always fixed things, no matter how broken they were. Maybe that was why they had kicked him out of the room, so that his daddy could focus on fixing his mom. Maybe if he sat here, quietly and without disrupting anyone, his mom would open her eyes again._

_ "You're so brave!" Tony heard a voice say, and for a second he thought his mother was up and about. His eyes looked left and right to find his mom, but he was disappointed to see that while it had been a woman who had uttered those same words, it was not the woman he had wanted to see._

_ "You did very good, baby," the woman told a little girl that was skipping next to her. "I'm so proud of you."_

_ "I'm proud of me too, Mama." The little girl said and stopped her skipping. "I told you I'd be brave!"_

_ "And you were," the woman said, crouched down to her daughter's eye level and smiled. "The shots didn't hurt, did they?"_

_ "Nope!" The child said and shook her head fiercely to emphasize her point. "Weelll," she twirled her index fingers in front of her chest. "Maybe a little."_

_ "Do you want some ice cream? It will take away the pain."_

_ "Really, Mama?" The little girl's eyes shimmered. "You mean it?"_

_ "Yes, Patricia. I mean it."_

_ The redheaded girl suddenly frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't call me that, Mama. You know I don't like it."_

_ "Why not?"_

_ "It sounds goofy," the girl stomped her foot on the floor._

_ "Then, what am I supposed to call you? Marie?" The woman stood up._

_ "No!" The girl shook her head. "Call me… call me… uhm… I'll think of something! A super cool name!"_

_ "I'm sure you will."_

_ The girl giggled, twirled around in place a few times to show that the injections had not hurt her, and when she finally stopped she saw a little boy sitting near them. He was staring at them with tears in his eyes and his laced hands in his lap. Before Gillian Potts was able to stop her daughter, the little redheaded child ran up to the boy with intense blue eyes, patted him on his arm and gave him a warm smile._

_ "Did they poke you, too?"_

_ Tony was too shocked to say anything, surprised by how this random girl had just approached him as if she knew him. He typically did not talk to people he did not know, but there was something about this other kid that made him feel at ease. Perhaps it was the way she was smiling at him or the curious, yet friendly look on her face._

_ "I don't know why they have to give us those stupid shots, anyway." She said with a shake of her strawberry head. _

_ Tony looked down shyly, not sure if he should say anything back or not, but she seemed to be waiting for him to say something, so he mumbled a reply._

_ "They're supposed to make you better." He said in a low voice, even though he knew this was not why he was crying in the first place. The girl frowned and leaned closer to him._

_ "Did you say that they take your pepper?" She asked in a confused voice, her head tilting to the side. For the first time that day, Tony actually wanted to laugh a little and shook his head._

_ "No, not __**pepper**__! I said that the shots are supposed to make you __**better**__." He clarified in a louder voice._

_ "Oh. Well, anyway, it's OK," the redhead said. "It only hurts for a little while, but it goes away. You just have to be brave."_

_ He was not sure why but he smiled back and nodded to her, and when she felt her job was done, the redhead giggled, waved goodbye to him and then ran up to her mother. The woman took her child's hand, smiled and waved at the sad little boy that her daughter had just cheered up, and began to lead her away. As the distance between the moving pair and the stationary boy increased, Tony heard the little redhead's loud, clear voice echo through the corridor._

_ "Hey! Mama, I got it! I know what I want my super cool name to be!"_

_Tony followed the two of them with his eyes until they disappeared behind the corner of the hall, and his gaze remained on the last place they had been standing in until his father showed up to again to tell him that his mother was truly not coming home with them. Ever again._

xxxXXXxxx

The best view of the Ball Drop event in Times Square did not come from being on the streets. It certainly did not come from watching it at home, and it obviously did not originate from being right under it either. The best view of it came from the top of the skyscrapers themselves, by the edge of them, and this was exactly where Tony had taken Pepper after he had essentially abducted her from her home.

She was still wearing her pajamas – she had made no plans to welcome the New Year with the rest of the city at midnight, and Tony's arrival at her window had been an unexpected surprise. She had not even said a word to him, and neither had he, but when he had extended his hand to her and had given her a sad smile, she had nodded to him, accepted his armored hand and had silently ridden in his arms the whole way here. Her father was not home, and her mother was gone. Tony Stark at her doorstep was all she had right now.

Her feet dangled from the edge, and even though the drop would be tragic, she was not afraid to fall. Tony was sitting to her left, quiet and still as she was, and even though he was not currently wearing his armor, it only took a second for Extremis to help him put it on. She knew he would never let her fall, even if she decided to take the plunge herself. She was safe near him. She was safe because of him.

The timer below them showed they had about five minutes before the singing, laughter and cheering would begin at midnight. She was not sure what had compelled her to come here with him, as she had no intention to join the bystanders below them in their happiness. She did not want to be bitter about their joy and their celebration, but she honestly could not find it in her to be happy for this year – a year that had taken more than it had given her, all this time. In fact, all she could be glad about was that it was coming to an end, very soon.

For the fifth time since they had arrived, Tony tried to but stopped himself from grabbing her hand. She could see his struggle from the corner of her eye, and had he continued his task, she would have not minded at all. It spoke volumes of their relationship when they could communicate without words, and even though she was a known chatterbox and could talk a mile a minute, body cues were good enough for her at the moment. That was, until she remembered they still had unresolved business; until she remembered she still had an apology to offer him.

"After I walked inside the room," she began, eyes on the crowd below them, "before it all ended," she swallowed hard, "I saw something I didn't expect."

Tony's head shifted to stare at her even though she was not watching him, his goal being letting her know he was listening to her without having to say so in the first place.

"She was watching all of us, crying for her, and she looked so sad but also so confused. I kept my eyes on her as she looked around the room and back, and I thought she was going to start screaming because she didn't recognize any of us. But she didn't."

Pepper paused for a second to control her trembling lips, and for a moment Tony felt her pain as clear as day. He knew what was coming, what she would describe regarding failing to say goodbye to a mother, just as he had done so himself. Against his will and better knowledge, tears began to fall from him for her.

"She was practically glaring at us by the third time she looked around… and then she stopped on me… and I panicked. I was afraid… I was scared of her… of this person I no longer knew…" Pepper closed her eyes to clear them of tears. "But then… I saw it… the change… I saw something shift in her… something just _snapped_. It was brief… it was quick… but I just _knew_ that at that moment, it was her."

This time, Tony could not help but to physically choke up with her, and even though it was her moment he was trying to pay attention to, the back of his mind pictured the one he had forgone with his own mom.

"She smiled," Pepper sobbed. "She smiled at me. She didn't say anything, she didn't even move, she just smiled. And I wanted to do more – to say more, but all I could think about was what you told me… what you told me I should do… so I did. I ignored everyone else… _everything _else. I focused on her smile, on the way she was staring at me, and told her the words…"

Pepper paused again, smiled brightly despite the cascading tears and finally looked up from the crowd to stare at some invisible spot in front of her. Tony knew what she was doing – it was what he did when he recalled that painful memory of his. She was watching the scene play in her mind. She was seeing her mother die all over again.

"And her smile got even wider, and then she blinked… and then she closed her eyes… and that was it."

Her head hung again, and this time Tony's hand did make it to hers. He held it tightly, lovingly, and when his eyes left their handhold to stare at her face, he was happy to see that her eyes were staring back at his.

"You shouldn't feel sorry or guilty for last year. I chose to stay here with you because you needed me… and I don't regret that. And going or not going to Seattle wouldn't have changed my mom's illness. You needed me here and I wanted to stay with you."

"But, Pepper… I can't not feel guilty about it. That was your family, _she _was your family. And family always comes first. There was no choice to make. You should've gone to see her even though I was pouting that I was going to be all alone."

Pepper arched a single brow. "You really think that? That family comes first?"

"Yes."

She scoffed. "Well, if that's really what you think, then why are you here with me when your dad, Roberta, Rhodey and David are down there, waiting for the ball to drop?"

"Because…," he began, sighed slowly to calm his nerves, and forced his eyes to continue staring at hers. "Family DOES come first. And, as far as I'm concerned, you're part of mine."

"Then, you shouldn't feel guilty that I stayed here with you. It's the same case for me with you."

She followed her statement by pulling his face closer to hers with her right hand while her left one still intertwined with his. She dried some of his tears that he had shed for her, pressed her forehead against his, and once she pulled away, she gave him a light kiss on his cheek. She smiled at him and at his confused and hopeful face, and when he tilted his head, silently asking her what she had meant with that kiss, she spoke.

"I trust you, Tony. I absolutely trust you."

He could not help but to smile.


	7. The Ice Rink

**Chapter 7: The Ice Rink**

"Pepper?" His desperate tone of voice scared her. "Pepper, are you alright?"

The spots in front of her eyes refused to go away despite how much she tried to blink them away. The world around her was spinning, sounds were muffled and confusing, and it was not until she forced her mind and ears to focus on his blue eyes staring down at her that she realized that not only was she not where she thought she had been two seconds ago, but that she was also not doing what she had been doing a moment ago.

_ Wait a minute. Staring __**down**__ at me?_

"Geez, Pepper. You scared the crud out of me!" He said and continued to hold her head on his lap and massaged her forehead. "Are you dizzy? Does your head hurt? You said you knew how to skate!"

She blinked again, this time rapidly, and as she searched his fearful eyes for answers, her mind began providing them instead.

_I tripped_, she recall and briefly closed her eyes. _I told Tony I knew how to ice skate… and then I tripped… I tripped and… and…_

A dream. It had all – mostly – been a terrible, _terrible_ dream.

Her mother was not dead: she was healthy, warm and asleep in her own home. Pepper had not skipped Christmas with her mom this year, like she had done so the last one to stay with a saddened, orphaned Tony Stark in New York. She was currently in Seattle and it was Christmas Eve. And she had just a short while ago snuck out of her mom's home when Tony had texted her to tell her he was right outside her window, wanting to see her before the break of dawn.

"Will you say something, please? You're starting to freak me out!"

"I…," she cleared her throat. "I don't know how to skate."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her and then rolled his eyes. "I knew it! I knew you didn't know! Why did you lie to me? You could've gotten seriously hurt, Pepper!"

"Because I wanted to come with you," she said as she allowed him to help her sit up on the cold ground. "And if I told you I didn't know how to ice skate, then you'd have gone back home."

Tony scoffed, helped her slowly stand up and once she found her footing on the iced lake, he turned her to face him and supported her wobbly form by embracing her waist. "No, I wouldn't have. I didn't fly nearly three-thousand miles just to turn around and leave if you didn't know how to skate. Don't be ridiculous, Pep."

The redhead could not stare at his eyes any longer, memories of her injury-induced dream returning to her. How much of it was reality and how much of it was a dream, she could not immediately tell. Thankfully for her, as he slowly and expertly swayed her from side to side in a tuneless dance over the natural ice rink he had brought her too, his words helped her separate reality from make-believe.

"If you had told me you didn't know how to skate, I'd have found something else for us to do."

"Like what?" She asked, still unable to face anything other than their gliding feet on the ice. "Take me to have ice cream in the middle of the night?"

He laughed. "No, Pep. I only did that the one time because there was nothing else we could do that late. Plus, you'd earned it after helping me defeat Obadiah."

_OK, so that __**did **__happen. He did take me out to have ice cream that night._

"I'm sure your girlfriend, Whitney, wouldn't be happy if she found out that we celebrated your victory over her dad."

"How_ hard_ did you hit your head?" He asked with a frown, stopped their skating and forced her to stare at him by holding the top of her head in his hands. He tilted her head from side to side, searched her scalp for signs of blood, and when he found none, he pulled back slightly and let his hands slide down to the base of her neck.

"Do you know who you are?" He inquired.

"What?"

"Answer me," his face turned somber. "This is serious. Do you know who you are?"

"Pepper Potts."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Tony Stark," she replied and finally stared at his eyes. "Iron Man."

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Christmas Eve, or Christmas... not sure what time it is."

"Do you know _where_ we are?"

"Seattle, Washington."

"Do you know _what_ we are?"

"_Grounded_," she began, "if either of our parents finds out that I snuck out of my mom's house or that you snuck out of yours to fly over here to exchange Christmas gifts."

Tony chuckled, shook his head, kissed her forehead and then threw her arms around his neck in order to pull her closer to him. He then began humming a random tune in her ear, held onto her hips to help her remain balanced while he guided their ice skating, and closed his eyes to fully enjoy her presence while he could. He only had a few more minutes with her, tops; before he had to fly back to New York to make sure that his father did not find out where he had been for the past four hours.

Pepper, on the other hand, was as confused as she had ever been. Her chin rested on his left shoulder, her chest was pressed against his, and she could see from where they stood that the Iron Man backpack was thrown haphazardly on the snow-covered ground by the edge of the frozen lake. Her eyes then scanned the rest of their surroundings, and she realized they were no longer in the city but in the woods, enclosed by tall trees, frozen vegetation and almost complete darkness, save for the moonlight that bathed them in the small clearing he had brought them to.

"Did you like your gift?" He whispered and she nodded in response even though she could not immediately recall what he had given her. "I was afraid it'd be too cheesy, but you said you loved bracelets, so..."

Then it dawned on her and she stared at her left wrist. He had given her a white gold charm bracelet. It had a heart, different kinds of shoes, an ice cream cone, a key, a lock, a purse, a star, and what she swore was a mini-replica of a jetpack. The last he had to have made himself; just like he had made the small unibeam replica pendant for her matching necklace that he had given her days ago.

At the airport.

When her flight had been cancelled. And he had offered his father's jet to her.

_ Oh, damn! _She told herself._ How did I forget that?_

_"What do you mean you don't have a ticket for me? I called earlier and confirmed it!"_

_ "I heard you the first time you screamed that, ma'am," the less than helpful or enthusiastic woman at the ticket counter told the redhead. "But the weather has grounded all flights. They're all canceled. There's nothing we can do about that."_

_ "I can't not get on that plane! I need to go to Seattle today!"_

_ "I don't know what to tell you, Miss. I can't fix that."_

_ "Ugh! This is ridiculous! Do you know why I'm trying to get out of here? Do you even understand why I need to get on that plane, right now?"_

_ "Because the insane asylum you clearly escaped from is gonna find out you was gone?"_

_ "What?"_

_ The woman rolled her eyes. "Look, hon, you holding up the line. Please step side or I will have you removed from the ticket counter… AND the airport."_

_ "But… my flight…"_

_ "I won't ask you again, Miss."_

Then she had sat in a chair, shoulders slumped and heartbroken, but her knight in shining gold-titanium armor had shown up to save the day.

_"Look up?" She read it aloud and her head jerked back. She read it again a few times, double-checked that the name on it was correct, and when she finally looked up as she had been told, her eyes immediately found his blue ones in the busy crowd. She remained speechless while he walked up to her, his eyes never leaving hers, and when he was mere feet away from where she sat, he cleared his throat, briefly glanced at her bags on the floor, noticed her red eyes, and then finally spoke._

"_I figured something didn't go as planned. I… I've been tracking your phone's location since you left school, and… and then I hacked the airline's database when you didn't move from here for an hour. And then I saw it. And… I…"_

"_And you, what?" She repeated when he took longer to say his next words even though she already knew what he was going to say to her._

"_And I just had to come help you out, Pep."_

_She looked down at her feet and sighed, only looking up and back at him when she felt him kneel before her on the floor._

"_Tony… there's no more seats available. I'm stuck here. There's no way I can go see my mom."_

"_That's not true."_

"_What? Did you hack the availability too? Or did Iron Man threaten one of the rude ladies over at the front?" She glared and almost growled at the one that had been of no help to her, but Tony did not bother to look back._

"_Yes," he said with a small smile, stood up from the floor, sat to her right and handed her an unsealed envelope. "Here."_

"_What is this?" She asked as she grabbed and opened the envelope and took out a boarding pass; a boarding pass with Stark International's logo on the corner of it and her name printed on the back._

"_Stark Solutions has no private jet, yet." He began in a soft voice. "But my dad's company does. He let me borrow it. Or, let you borrow it, actually. The pilot's waiting for you, right now. Gate 45."_

And before she had left, he had given her the necklace, had told her it was gift one of three, and after she had thanked him and kissed him, she had ran to the checkpoint to leave.

_Wait: I kissed him?_

Indeed, she had; just as she had kissed him when they had first arrived at this frozen lake, when he had given her gift three out of three: a ring that matched her necklace and bracelet.

The redhead closed her eyes and held back a happy squeal. It all finally came back to her – ALL of it.

"_I'm trying to make amends here, Pep. I know I betrayed you when I didn't tell you about Whitney – about a lot of things, actually. But I'm trying to be better about it. I want you to trust me again. I __**need **__**you**__ to trust me again."_

_Pepper closed her eyes, aimed her face towards him and finally stared at his eyes. "I know. But… it'll take some time."_

_All he could do was nod and look down._

_She felt his arm loosen up and drop from her waist, and she took it as a sign that the conversation was over. She exhaled as quietly as she could when she began walking towards the door for the third time, and as the sound of the opening contraption offered her the feeling of freedom from this uncomfortable conversation, his next words made her feel as if said liberty was just a sham._

"_I know I don't love her, Pepper, because I'm falling in love with you. I can't love someone I don't fully trust. And I'm afraid that you can't either. That's why I need you to trust me. That's why I want you to trust me again. I can wait for you… as long as you need me to, because I know you feel it, too."_

_Pepper closed her eyes to hold back tears, and before the door closed behind her, she finally spoke up. "You're right. I do feel it too, but it means nothing if I can't trust you like I used to."_

And he had been patient with her, and she with him, and two months ago they had started dating, and they had been successful in keeping it a secret from everyone, until they had been found, days ago.

"_Is she coming to New York?" He patiently waited for a response._

_ She shook her head curtly from side to side and he sighed. He was really looking forward to spending Christmas with her again. But a promise was a promise, and family came first. This time, Pepper had to spend the holidays with her mother in Seattle, Washington. This year, there would be no hyper Pepper driving him crazy during the ball drop._

_ "I'm so sorry, Pep." He told her with utmost honesty while he linked the fingers on his left hand with her right ones. He clutched her hand tenderly and briefly, earning him an appreciative squeeze in return. His eyes then trekked from their laced hands to her distant stare, almost at a loss of what to do next. Thankfully for him, she took the lead on getting what she currently needed from the inventor, and he was more than ready to provide._

_"I leave this Friday," she whispered after she added to their handhold the resting of her head on his left shoulder. She would have been happy with just that or even with a simple quick hug from him, but she was pleasantly surprised and felt even more emotionally supported by Tony when he adjusted his sitting position so that she could rest her face on his chest, and his arms went around her body to pull her closer to his and away from the bitter cold of December. And as if that had not been enough, he ventured the opportunity to press his unexpectedly warm lips on her forehead not once, but __**twice.**_

_ "Is your dad going with you?"_

_"Nope," she replied and closed her eyes once more, the welcoming heat of his body slowly transferring to hers. "But he's on a long mission, anyway. I won't see him until I return"_

_ "When do you come back?"_

_ "Day after New Year's."_

_ The silence that followed her answer was not interrupted for a long while as words could not truly convey her thoughts, and his could not explain how disappointed he felt with her departure, with the exception of one particular phrase he had wanted to tell her for weeks now. He had wanted to spend his first Christmas with her as his girlfriend, together, and he had already planned how to make it an extra special one for her. Sadly, this very moment was all they would get for now, and they both knew they had at least an hour to sit there, alone during their off period, with no one to disturb their moment together, and based on their reluctance to move from where they presently were, it appeared as if it was A-OK with both of them._

_"I love you," the inventor stated out of nowhere and the redhead's body stiffened, her eyes opened wide._

_ "What?" She did not dare to move an inch, let alone face him_

_ "I love you," he repeated, pulled away from her to stare at her hazel orbs, and it was then that she realized how nervous he truly was at confessing this to her. "And I'm gonna miss you like hell."_

And before she had had the chance to tell him that she loved him too, he had leaned down and had kissed her on the lips for the first time, his hands at the base of her neck, hers around his waist. And then Rhodey had walked out onto the roof in search of them and had found them out, but only for him to then roll his eyes at them, dismiss their actions with a wave of his hand as he turned around in place, and had then mumbled something along the lines of _"'bout fucking time."_

"Did you like yours?" She asked when she suddenly remembered what she had given him.

"I did," he said with a smile. "I still can't believe my dad was in on it, too."

"He had to be," she told him. "I wouldn't be able to get the whole story, the pictures and the dates and names right if he hadn't."

"That's true," he softly told her as he recalled how surprised he had been that Pepper had gone through all that trouble to make a scrapbook of his moments with his mother. She knew that it was a soft spot for him, having lost his mother at a young age, and after she had dragged him to the cemetery to visit his mom and finally tell her that he loved her, after all these years, Pepper found it appropriate to give him something tangible to help him find closure. Particularly, after her research on the matter had revealed a fact that neither of them had been aware of nor expected – that she and Tony had actually met once before, when they were much younger.

_"Your mom knew you loved her, Tony."_ Pepper had told him once she had given him the gift in advance. _"When you love someone and they love you back, you can always tell how they feel, even without words."_

And she had been right, because even if Pepper was yet to tell him that she loved him, he knew the feeling was there for him to see.

Now she understood why her dream had turned out the way it had. Her mind had taken the pain she had felt for Tony and the guilt he felt over his mother, and had given her a vision of how it could have been for her due to her own feelings of remorse for choosing to not visit her mother last Christmas. Then the details of his mother's passing had merged in there, making his pain that much more personal and real for her. That, in addition, to how poorly her cousin Megan had treated her over the phone while Tony had been listening in, and how strongly he had reacted against her by taking the phone from her and giving her surprised cousin a piece of his mind. The events of the past few weeks had all come together, intermingled, and had created a reality she had hated to experience, but that thankfully she really did not have to live.

His Stark Pod began beeping and he groaned loudly. He had not wanted for their impromptu date to end. He just wanted to spend the rest of the night with her. But he knew he had to leave now or he would not have the chance to take her back to her mom's house and then return to New York with his cover intact.

"I'll be back next week, Tony," she told him when she felt his reluctance to leave. "And if you don't leave right now, we'll both be in so much trouble, my dad's gonna end up sending me to a convent or something."

"And we really don't want that," he said once he pulled away from her only to kiss her harder and deeper that he had done so far. Once the kiss ended, her cheeks were as red as her hair; it was still difficult for her to believe that Tony Stark liked her this way.

"Thanks for tonight," she said once she found her voice and her breath once more. "It was a pleasant surprise."

"That was the idea," he said with pride as he began sliding them towards the edge of the ice rink to sit on the ground to take off their skates. Once the contraptions were off and their regular shoes were back on, he got up with her in tow, suited up and then carried her in his arms.

"Ready, Pep?"

"Ready." She retorted and closed her eyes.

And the next time she opened them, she did so when the morning light hit her face, and she realized she had fallen asleep in his arms, on the way back. And before she freaked out and thought it all to be another dream, she saw the new vase of fresh flowers next to her bed and she smiled. The ring on her finger, the pendant on her chest and the bracelet on her wrist were enough to prove to her that Tony had in fact been here last night and that they were together after all – that they were slowly adjusting to the new side of their relationship. But it had been the flowers and the _Good Morning_ text from him in her phone that reminded her that it was the little things that truly made an impact on someone's life.

The little things – exactly what the redhead and the inventor did for each other, until the end of time.

**THE END**

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading and reviewing! Have an AWESOME holiday season filled with THE LITTLE THINGS!<strong>


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